


The Worst Timing

by SeveralSmallHedgehogs



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, broganes, klance, shallura - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-01
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2018-09-21 06:39:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9536351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeveralSmallHedgehogs/pseuds/SeveralSmallHedgehogs
Summary: The most beautiful man in the world lives in Allura's apartment building, and he only sees her when she looks absolutely awful. Good thing he's friendly.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Somewhat inspired by that one tumblr post that I can't seem to link to.  
> 

          Allura first met him when she was getting on the elevator in her apartment building. It happened at eleven o’clock at night, right as she was getting home from the restaurant she worked at, where she’d had to work a double shift because some new kid didn’t bother to show up for theirs. She was tired, her hair was a mess, her makeup was probably half gone, her uniform was rumpled… and she just generally looked like shit. To make matters worse, it was raining. She was dripping wet because she hadn’t had an umbrella, and she was jogging toward the elevator when the doors started to close

“Hold the elevator!” she called without really expecting anyone to react.

          But, to her surprise, a hand appeared in the opening, and the doors stopped and retreated. She jogged inside, out of the rain, and looked up to say her thanks to the singular other person in the elevator- the person who’d held the doors for her.

          And she stopped.

          This man was absolutely gorgeous. He looked like he’d stepped out of a magazine for businessmen, wearing black slacks and a white button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and the top button undone. He was absolutely flawless. He had this beautifully chiseled jaw, and he was at least six feet tall and he was built like he’d been carved by Michelangelo. So what, if he had a scar like a slash mark across the bridge of his nose? Saying it was a flaw implied it detracted from his looks, and honestly? It didn’t.

          And then there was that _smile._ He smiled at Allura, at a complete stranger, and it felt like standing in direct sunshine. It felt like she’d just woken up from a perfect night’s sleep.

          It felt like home.

          She stood there, staring at him, for a couple of seconds before she realized he’d asked her a question. She blinked quickly. “Sorry, what?”

          He smiled again. “What floor?” His hand hovered in front of the elevator buttons.

          “Oh. Five. I’m on floor five.”

          “Same.” He gestured to the panel of buttons; sure enough, he’d already hit the button for the fifth floor. Allura eyed him and wondered if he’d moved in recently; she’d never seen him before.

          “So,” the man said, breaking through her thoughts, “Forgot your umbrella?”

          “I don’t have one,” she replied tiredly, and then yawned.

          The man glanced at her. “Late shift?”

          Allura’s feet ached at the memory of the last few hours. She sighed. “And a double. New kid didn’t show up for work.”

          “Oof.” The man grimaced. “You have my sympathy. I’ve got a desk job, so the worst I ever get is a sore back."

          The elevator slowed to a halt and the doors opened. Allura started to step out of the elevator, but she hadn’t gone two paces before the man said, “Hang on a second.”

          She stopped and looked back to see him offering her a folded black umbrella. “Go on and take it,” he said. “It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, too.”

          Hesitantly Allura took the umbrella. “How are you going to get it back, though?” she wanted to know.

           “You can keep it.” Again with the beautiful smile. “I have more than one umbrella.”

          “Oh. Uh… thank you.” Allura managed a lame wave and a “Goodbye” before turning and quickly walking away to keep from further embarrassing herself.

 

          The second time she saw him, she had just gotten back from the grocery store. She was wearing yoga pants, old sneakers, and a shirt that was way too big. She was struggling to keep her grip on all her grocery bags, which was bad enough by itself. But then, right as she was trying to step onto the elevator, she tripped and fell and scattered her groceries all over the floor.

          She swore, struggling to her knees and wincing as one of her wrists throbbed; she must have fallen on it.

          “Want some help?” asked the man who’d been standing in the elevator when she fell into it. He shifted his satchel to his back and knelt down without waiting for a response.

          “Thanks,” Allura said, and then she looked up and she felt her face flush. This was the same hot guy who she’d run into the other night. Yet again, he was wearing black slacks and a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and his hair was perfect and his face was perfect and - oh god she was staring again. _Stop staring._

          Quickly Allura looked down and focused on gathering up her groceries. Once or twice his hands entered her field of view as he reached for something. It was only then that she realized one of his hands- one of his arms- was a prosthetic. It looked almost like something out of a science fiction movie. She wasn’t sure how she hadn’t noticed it before. Maybe because she was more focused on his face, and his shoulders, and... _you’re staring again. Please stop staring before he notices you’re doing it._

          Her first thought was to ask what happened, but she fought the urge and instead kept gathering her groceries. When she finished, the man got to his feet and helped her arrange her the bags so she could carry them more easily.

          Allura was already back at her own apartment before it crossed her mind to try and introduce herself to the guy.

         

          The third time she ran into him was when she was waiting for the elevator early in one morning. Allura was in a hurry, and she’d stopped to pull on a hoodie. Unfortunately, she’d gotten stuck somehow, and she was just struggling to pull the hoodie on or off and hoping the people passing by weren’t staring too much.

          Then someone asked, “Do you need help?”

          Allura stopped. She knew that voice. That voice belonged to the absolutely beautiful man she _kept running into when she looked awful._ “Uh,” she stalled, and then realized that the longer she stood there trapped in her hoodie, the dumber she was going to look. “Yes,” she admitted.

          “All right. Hold on a second.” Hands gripped the neck of the hoodie and pulled it to one side a little, and somehow that fixed everything. Allura was able to put her head through the neck of the hoodie and she could finally see again.

          The guy was smiling, a spark of humor in his eyes. Allura felt her face flush; she knew her hair had to be a mess, and… well, he’d just caught her stuck in a hoodie. “Thank you,” she said, straightening her hoodie and trying to retain whatever shred of dignity she still had.

          “It’s no problem,” he replied. “Were you getting onto the elevator?”

          “Yes,” she replied.

          “Me, too.” He pushed a button and glanced at her. “Where’re you headed?”

          “Getting some things from the store,” she replied, checking her pocket to make sure her wallet hadn’t fallen out. “You?”

          “Gym,” he replied. “I haven’t gone in a couple of weeks and I’m getting flabby.”

          Allura eyed him and realized that for the first time that she’d ever seen, he wasn’t dressed up. He was wearing gray sweatpants, a thin white shirt, and a jacket that was stretched a little over his broad shoulders and muscular arms. “Flabby” was not a word she would have used to describe him.

          The elevator dinged, the doors opened, and they stepped inside. Allura hit the button for the ground floor. They stood in silence for a moment.

          Allura screwed up her courage and said, “It’s occurred to me that I haven’t caught your name.”

          He looked at her and blinked. “Oh. Really? It’s Shiro.”

          “Shiro?” she repeated.

          He shrugged. “Well, really, it’s Takashi. Takashi Shirogane. But I’m used to going by Shiro.”

          “Alright,” she replied. “I’m Allura. Allura St. Grace.”

          “St. Grace,” Shiro repeated, smiling again. “It fits you.”

          She crossed her arms. “You’re making fun of me, aren’t you?”

          “Not at all. It really does fit.”

          Allura rolled her eyes. “Flattery will get you nowhere.”

          Then the doors opened. Allura stepped out and paused, waiting as Shiro joined her. “Well,” he said, holding out his left hand, “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Allura St. Grace.”

          “The pleasure’s mine,” she replied, and after a second, she accepted the handshake. Something like a thread of electricity zinged up her arm when her hand touched his; her heart kicked into high gear. She gave a smile that she could only hope wasn’t too awkward and quickly let go.

          “Goodbye,” she said abruptly, and hurried away.

          She bought the stuff at the store as quickly as possible and headed back to the apartment building. She _really_ didn’t want to run into Shiro again today. Well, she _did,_ but she wanted to run into him when she looked like a human being and not a trash monster in yoga pants.

          Luckily, she made it back to her apartment without seeing Shiro and kicked the door shut behind herself. Then she breathed a sigh of relief and started putting away what she’d bought. Most of it was cleaning supplies; her apartment was a mess.

           
          Right as she finished putting away the supplies and was about to sit down, Allura’s phone rang. She pulled it out and checked the caller ID. The picture on the screen was one of a man with orange hair, an orange mustache, and a tan, weather-beaten face. In the picture, he was grinning from ear to ear and he had his arm around the shoulders of someone whose face had been cut off by the edge of the picture. The missing face belonged to Allura’s father; she’d gotten so many calls from this number after her father’s death, she’d cropped the contact picture so she didn’t have to see her father’s face every time the phone rang.

          She hit ‘talk’ and held the phone up to her ear. “Hello, Coran.”

          “Hello, Miss Allura,” he replied. “I was just calling to check up on you, see how you’re doing.” He still called her Miss Allura, the same as he had ever since she first started accompanying her father to work. She’d sort of liked it as a child, but now, in her twenties, it was a little embarrassing. He didn’t work for her family anymore, after all. She was no “Miss Allura.” She worked as a _waitress._

          “I’m doing all right, Coran,” she replied, sitting back and pulling her legs up onto the chair. “How are you?”

          “Oh, I could be worse. Work’s going all right. The new management will never measure up to the old management. How’s your job going?”

           Allura sighed. “Like you said, it could be worse. I’m making enough to pay for my apartment and everything.” Barely. The restaurant was a pretty nice one, but it wasn’t _that_ nice. Her furniture was sparse, and all of it was cheap stuff from IKEA. She didn’t have a TV; she just watched Netflix on the laptop she’d had since her second year of college.

          “And groceries?” Coran asked, ever the mother hen. “Are you eating well?”

          “Yes, Coran.” The mention of groceries reminded her of when Shiro helped her gather everything up after she tripped into the elevator.

           Apparently she was silent for a second too long, because Coran asked, “Miss Allura? Are you all right?”

           “I’m fine,” she said quickly.

           “Miss Allura. You can tell me if something’s wrong. What happened?”

           She sighed and leaned against the arm of her chair. “Nothing’s wrong, Coran. It’s…” She hesitated. “There’s someone in my apartment building…”

          “Is someone bothering you?” Coran demanded. “Who? We’ll see how much they’re bothering you when _I’m_ through with them!”

          Allura stilled a smile. Even after all this time, Coran cared about her like a second father. “No one is bothering me,” she assured him. “There’s just…” She paused, searching for words. “I keep running into someone who lives on my floor, a very nice man about my age, and I like him a lot. And I’m always a mess when I see him. What’s worse, he always seems so put-together.” She sighed.

          “Oh.” Coran didn’t sound a whole lot more relaxed. She knew he was on a different kind of guard now- _Miss Allura was interested in someone?_ “Well, if he can't see past outward appearances, then I’d say he’s not worth the brainpower it takes to think about him.”

          Allura smiled. “I suppose you’re right, Coran.” She was silent for a moment. “I think he does,” she added. “I think he does see past outward appearances, I mean. He’s been nice enough to me so far. And nothing’s set off any alarm bells.”

          Coran made a disgruntled sound. “Well, if he puts so much as a toe out of line, you tell me right away, all right, Miss Allura? I’ll see to it that he never does it again.”

          Allura laughed. “Thank you, Coran. I appreciate it.”

          “Of course, Miss Allura.” There was a pause. “My break’s almost over, I’ve gotta run.”

          “Goodbye, Coran.”

          “Goodbye, Miss Allura.”

          She hit “End Call” and stared at the phone for a moment, studying the half-picture of Coran and her father. Then, with a sigh, she put her phone on the table and got up to start making dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to my friend Carly for beta!
> 
> Find me on tumblr [here!](http://severalsmallhedgehogs.tumblr.com/)


	2. Chapter 2

            Shiro had a routine that he followed every morning. Well, that he _tried_ to follow every morning. He generally managed to get up at the right time, and since he always showered at night, that was another ten or fifteen minutes he could spend doing other things. Like putting on his prosthetic. And putting his shirt on over his prosthetic. And trying to find a pair of matching socks.

            Along with the socks issue, he usually got off-schedule at breakfast. He had a tendency to read at the table, and sometimes he lost track of time, which meant hurrying to finish getting ready and sprinting to the elevator ten minutes late.

            Which, recently, often meant missing Allura. It wasn’t as if he went out of his way to get there at the same time as she did; it was just a bonus bright spot in his day if he got to talk to her in the elevator. She was usually half-asleep, having just woken up, and heading downstairs to get her newspaper out of her box.

            “How come you don’t sleep in longer?” Shiro asked her once. “Do you have another job?”

            She shook her head, yawning. That day, she was wearing sweatpants and a loose shirt, and her hair was rumpled on only one side and it kept falling into her face, no matter how many times she tucked it behind her ear. She had a _lot_ of hair. He found himself wondering if it felt as soft as it looked.

            A couple of seconds passed before Allura finished her yawn and managed to respond. “I’m too used to getting up early,” she said wearily. “Most of the time I just take a nap around noon.” She eyed him. “I suppose you don’t have that luxury.”

            Shiro laughed. “No. I wish. Although, I can’t say I envy your work hours.”. She always looked exhausted. He didn’t know how she managed to be so pleasant all the time. Well, more pleasant than he figured he’d be, in her situation. He had a tendency to snap at people when he was tired, or stressed, and she always seemed to be both when she was getting back from her job.

            A moment later the elevator doors opened, and Allura gave a mumbled goodbye and stepped out of the elevator ahead of Shiro. They parted ways there in the lobby- Shiro headed for the door, and Allura headed for her box.

            Work was as usual. Shiro was just a desk jockey. It wasn’t the worst job he’d ever had; at least there were no disasters that were worse than when the copier exploded and covered part of the floor of the workroom in black ink. It was a dull, routine job, and Shiro welcomed the monotony. No surprises was good.

            He got off work at five and headed back to his apartment building. He rode the elevator up to the fifth floor alone, unlocked his apartment, and stepped inside. There was nothing and no one there to welcome him home. He lived alone, and he didn’t have any pets. The apartment was eerily silent as he microwaved leftovers for dinner and ate at the table.

            After that, he took off his prosthetic arm, showered, and turned on the TV in the living room. Around eight, his phone rang. He picked it up and checked the screen. The caller ID read simply, _DAD._

Shiro put the phone back down and let it go to voice mail.

He tried to pay attention to the TV, but the clock on the wall ticked quietly in the corner of his consciousness. He glanced at it every five minutes or so. At ten o’clock, he went to bed.

            He didn’t sleep for very long before the nightmares started. He was sitting in a truck, surrounded by people wearing the same uniform as him, holding helmets in their laps. Suddenly there as an ear-splitting _boom_ and Shiro found himself fallen top of another couple of soldiers. The truck was on its side and there was a hole near where he had been sitting. His ears rang. His arm hurt so badly he couldn’t think. When he looked over to see why, he screamed.

            Shiro sat bolt upright in bed, his chest heaving. His missing arm ached.

            He knew from experience that he wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep. Instead he got up and did some pushups one-handed. He was used to waking up in the middle of the night. Sometimes it wasn’t so bad, and he sort of enjoyed the peace and quiet. Other times, like this one, there was nothing worse than being alone his apartment while the rest of the world was still asleep. On days like those, he felt like the only person still alive.

He was still restless after he finished his pushups, so he went through the rest of his workout routine. By the time he finally stopped feeling jumpy, grayish early-morning light was poking through the blinds of his bedroom window.

            The dream clung to him like a spiderweb even after the sun came up and the streets filled with people. At least it was Saturday; he didn’t have to go to work on too few hours of sleep. Maybe he could take a nap later.

            Around nine, he put on his prosthetic and headed downstairs to get a newspaper. When he turned the corner, he found Allura waiting for the elevator.

            “Allura!” he called. “Hi!”

            She glanced up and gave a weary smile. “Hello, Shiro. How are you?”  
            “I’m all right,” he said, stopping next to her. “How are you?”

            “I could be better.” She sighed. “My vacuum cleaner is done for. It’s pretty old; I’ve been needing to get a new one for a while. But this morning I accidentally knocked one of my plants off the windowsill, and now I’ve got dirt all over my carpet and a vacuum cleaner that doesn’t work.”  
            “You could borrow mine,” Shiro offered. “It’s just a little handheld vacuum, but it might do the job.”

            Allura looked up at him. “Really? Thank you!”

            “Come on,” he said, “I’ll get it for you.”

            She hesitated, and then followed him down the hall toward his apartment. “I’ll just be a minute,” he told her before disappearing inside, leaving the door open. The vacuum was in the broom closet; he grabbed it and took it back out to Allura. “You can return it when you’re done. I’ll be here all day.” He smiled.

            Allura smiled back. “Thank you so much.”.

 

            Once he’d gotten his paper, Shiro went back to his apartment and sat down to watch TV. There was nothing better to do until Allura came back with the vacuum cleaner. But no sooner had he sat down than the doorbell rang. He got up and went to open the door, half expecting Allura to be standing outside. But to his surprise, it wasn’t Allura; it was Pidge, his best friend Matt’s little sister. He was even more surprised to see that Pidge wasn’t alone.

          “Lance, Hunk,” he said aloud, glad he could remember their names. “Hi.” Pidge had befriended these two recently; they were in her year at school, but since she’d skipped a couple of grades, they were two years older than she was. Shiro had been a little worried about her until he confirmed that Lance and Hunk would never do anything to hurt her. Lance was tall and lanky and liked to hit on girls, but thank God, he saw Pidge like a little sister. The other one, Hunk, was big and kind and- how had Pidge put it that one time?- “Shaped like a friend.” He was a six-foot-tall teddy bear, really.

          Shiro stepped aside to let them in. “It’s nice to see you, don’t get me wrong,” he said as they filed past him, “but what are you guys doing here?” Lance grinned and waved as he passed, and Shiro, puzzled, waved back. Lance grinned wider.

          “We needed someplace to study, and Matt was using the living room,” Pidge replied. “Sorry I didn’t call ahead. My phone’s dead.”

          Shiro sighed. “You could’ve used your home phone,” he said.

          Lance laughed. “Who uses home phones anymore?”

          The three teenagers started making themselves comfortable in the living room, setting out books and papers and pencils on Shiro’s coffee table. Lance and Pidge sat on the floor; Hunk took the end of the couch.

          Watching them set up, Shiro crossed his arms and smiled wryly. He _had_ just been wishing he wasn’t alone in his apartment, hadn’t he? And the universe had delivered.

          Deciding he might as well enjoy the company while he had it, Shiro got his laptop from his room and sat in the armchair across from Lance. “What are you guys working on?” he asked.

          “Physics,” Pidge said without looking up.

          “Engineering homework,” Hunk supplied.

          “English,” Lance added, scratching his head. “Robert Frost is kicking my ass.”

          Shiro laughed. “I was never much for poetry, either.” He was just pulling up Excel on his laptop when there was a knock at the door. Figuring it was Allura come to return the vacuum, Shiro got to his feet and opened the door. But yet again, the person at the door wasn’t Allura.

          Standing outside was Shiro’s sixteen-year-old half-brother, Keith. He was wearing the same red jacket he’d had the last time Shiro saw him, and his hair was getting to the point where it was basically a mullet.  

          “Keith,” Shiro said, stepping aside to let his half-brother into the apartment. When he glanced over his shoulder, the kids in the living room were all watching them. Lance was frowning for some reason. “I… wasn’t expecting you today.”

          “Dad sent me to check up on you,” Keith said, crossing his arms. “Said you haven’t been returning his calls.”

          Shiro didn’t answer the unspoken question of _why aren’t you answering Dad’s calls?_ Instead he told Keith, “I have some people over right now. I mean,” he added when Keith blinked, “you’re welcome to stick around. I just wanted to tell you, they’ll probably be here a while.” He gestured loosely to the teenagers in his living room. “They’re Matt’s little sister and her friends. I can introduce you, if you want.”

          Just as he was turning to face the living room, Lance jumped to his feet and shouted, “ _You!_ ” He was pointing at Keith.

          Keith blinked, looked at Shiro, and then looked back at Lance. “Me?”

          “Yeah, you! What are _you_ doing here?”

          Keith arched an eyebrow. “Do I know you?”

          There was a pause. “I- what?” Lance looked appalled. Then he smirked. “Oh, trying to act cool, huh? Pretending you don’t remember me? The name’s _Lance._ Ringing any bells?”

          “No,” Keith said blankly.

          Pidge snorted. “Figures. Hi, Keith.”

          “Hi, Pidge,” he replied.

          Abruptly Hunk sat up straight. “Wait- Keith? Seriously?”

          Keith eyed him. “Yeah. You’re… Hunk, right? We had biology class together in freshman year.”

          Hunk looked pleased that Keith remembered him.

          “Wait, you go to our school?” Pidge asked Keith, narrowing her eyes. “I haven’t seen you anywhere.”

          Lance broke in, “He _went_ to our school until he dropped off the face of the earth halfway through sophomore year.” He eyed Keith. “You seriously don’t remember me?”

          “No,” Keith replied, seeming irritated. “Why should I?’

          “Dude! I was _in the class_ when you went off on that teacher! It was totally nuts!”

          “What teacher?” Pidge asked, looking between them in confusion. “What was nuts?”

          Keith opened his mouth, but Shiro had already read his expression and knew that whatever he said, it wouldn’t be good. “That’s enough, guys,” he interrupted, stepping between Keith and Lance in case they went at each other. “Guys, this is my brother, Keith, who you all apparently know already. Keith, if you’re going to stick around, then go ahead and sit down.”

          Grudgingly Keith obliged, taking a seat as far away from Lance as he could manage. Although he and Lance were still glaring daggers at each other, at least they weren’t actually fighting. Shiro sighed heavily and took the remaining chair.

          After a few minutes, Keith got tired of alternately ignoring and scowling at Lance, and he got a book from the bookshelf and started reading it, aggressively not looking at Lance. Shiro had to wonder what exactly had happened with them; he knew the story of how Keith got expelled, of course, but he wasn’t entirely sure why Lance seemed to hate him so much.

          Half an hour later, Pidge called a snack break. “Hey, Shiro,” she said, “you got any snacks?”

          “I have celery,” Shiro told her.

          “Ew. Got anything else?”

          “I have celery,” he repeated.

          “You’re a terrible friend.” Pidge got to her feet. “I think there’s a vending machine somewhere on this floor. Come on, guys.” Lance and Hunk got up and followed her, but at the door, Pidge stopped and looked over her shoulder. “Hey, Shiro? There’s a lady standing in the hallway looking kinda lost.”

          Shiro put his laptop aside and poked his head into the hall. “Allura,” he said, catching her attention. He stepped out into the hallway as she turned toward him. She’d changed clothes since he last saw her, which shouldn’t have been as surprising as it was. Shiro realized then that he’d never seen her looking anything but tired and disheveled.

          Allura was wearing a pink sweater and pale blue skinny jeans, and low boots with a small heel. Her hair was tied up in a high ponytail, with her bangs framing her face. Her makeup was perfect enough that it was actually difficult to tell that she was wearing any. Shiro blinked rapidly, trying to get a handle on whatever mix of feelings he was experiencing.

          “I was returning your vacuum,” she said. “But I couldn’t remember which apartment was yours.”

          “Oh. It’s… uh, it’s this one.” He pointed awkwardly to the number above the door.

          “I see.” Allura’s eyes flicked to the door behind Shiro. “Am I intruding?”

          “Uh… no,” Shiro said, glancing over his shoulder. The teenagers were all watchingtheir exchange from the doorway. “I mean, I have some people over...”

          Wrong thing to say. Allura blinked and shifted backwards. “Oh. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

          “No, no, you’re fine,” Shiro assured her quickly. He heard scuffling behind him and sighed, turning to introduce them. “Guys, this is Allura. She’s my neighbor.”

          “Hello,” Allura gave a small wave.

          “I’m Pidge,” Pidge piped up.

          “Hunk.” Hunk waved.

          “Lance.” Lance winked. Shiro wondered if he realized Allura was a little old for him.

          “Keith,” Keith said, crossing his arms and scowling like the moody teen he was.

          “Keith is my brother,” Shiro explained. “The rest are just friends of mine.”

          Allura nodded. “It’s nice to meet you all,” she said. She didn’t quite seem to know what to make of the gathering. So instead of saying something else, she handed Shiro his vacuum cleaner. “Thank you for letting me borrow this.”

          “No problem,” Shiro replied. Allura waved, and then turned and headed down the hall. Shiro stepped back into the apartment. “You guys go get your snacks while I put this away,” he told them. “Vending machine’s down the hall and to the left.”

          They went without a word, and Shiro opened the vacuum cleaned over the trash but was surprised to find that Allura had already emptied it. He put the vacuum back in the closet, and he was just sitting down again when Pidge and the others reentered. They stopped talking immediately when they stepped into the apartment, and remained silent as they sat back down. All of them kept glancing at Shiro, though.

          Finally, Shiro sighed. “What is it, guys?”

          “Are you dating her?” Pidge asked bluntly.

          “No,” Shiro replied. “I’m not.”

          “Are you sure?” Lance put in. “She was kinda-”

          “I am not dating Allura,” he told them firmly. “And even if I was, it wouldn’t be any your business. That goes for all of you,” he added, eyeing Keith, who looked away. There was a pause, and he looked around at them. “Is that all? Can we get back to work now?”

          The teenagers raised their eyebrows at each other, but thankfully, they quietly returned to their homework and didn’t bring up the subject again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may be projecting my English class woes onto Lance. 
> 
> The POV for this is going to switch back and forth between Shiro and Allura, and it may not stay the same throughout every chapter in the future. Just so y'all know.
> 
> (Also- writing this is turning out to be a learning experience for me because I've done some research on amputees for it and I'm finding out some stuff I didn't know about before)
> 
> Find me on tumblr [here!](http://severalsmallhedgehogs.tumblr.com/)


	3. Chapter 3

           Allura got Shiro’s phone number the Monday after she borrowed his vacuum. They met in the elevator in the morning, as usual, and they were just getting in when Shiro looked at her and said, “Do you want my number so you can text me if you need the vacuum again?”

            And that was how she ended up with Shiro’s phone number. It was about as anticlimactic as it sounded.

            What she _really_ didn’t expect was for him to text her first. It was around ten o’clock in the morning that next Saturday when her phone buzzed, waking her up. Groggily she propped herself up on one elbow and checked her phone. It was a text from Shiro that read, _Are you busy today?_

            Allura sat up and stared at her phone for about five minutes, trying to figure out why he was asking. Finally, she texted back, _No. Why do you ask?_

            The response was immediate. _Do you want to go to the park with me today?_

            Allura wasn’t sure how to react. It wasn’t as if he was asking her out on a date; he just wanted to hang out at the park for a while. Today. For some unknown reason.

            She asked, _Not to be rude, but why?_

            The “typing” icon came up four times in the six minutes it took him to reply. _I need to not be in my apartment for the rest of the day._

            She glanced out the window. The sky was gray and cloudy, and she could tell just from looking that it was probably cold out. She took a deep breath. _It looks pretty bad outside. Do you want to come to my apartment instead?_

            Another, shorter pause. _Is that okay with you?_

_I wouldn’t have asked if I wasn’t fine with it._

_I can’t go home until around ten._

_That’s fine. I don’t have work tonight_

_All right. Thank you._

_It’s no trouble. I’ll text you the address_

           Allura barely had time to scramble into her clothes and make herself look halfway presentable before she heard Shiro knocking.

           She stumbled to the door and yanked it open. “Hi!” she said, probably a little too loudly. “Come on in!”

           Shiro stepped into the apartment and moved aside so she could shut the door. “Thanks for letting me stay here for a while,” he said once she turned to face him.

           “Like I said, it’s no trouble.” Allura shrugged, trying to seem casual, and led him to the living room. Only then did she realize that her apartment was sort of a mess. There was laundry on the couch and dishes in the sink, and it just generally looked like she hadn’t cleaned in two weeks. Which, granted, she hadn’t.

           “Sorry about the mess,” she said, not looking at Shiro. “Let me just clear a space for you here…” She pushed aside some laundry. “You can go ahead and sit down. Are you hungry? Want anything to eat?”

           “No, I’m good. Thank you, though.” Shiro sat down and looked around. Allura felt herself flush. No doubt he was thinking about how terrible her apartment looked. Finally _she_ looked all right, and he saw her apartment in this state!

            “I haven’t had much time to clean,” she mumbled, clearing off one of the IKEA chairs and sitting down.

            “You’re fine,” Shiro said. “I did ask to come over on pretty short notice. Besides, it’s not bad. It looks… lived-in.”

            Allura eyed him. “You realize that’s just a polite way of saying it’s a mess.”

            He blinked. “Really? Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant…” He paused, searching for the right words. “My apartment is really clean all the time. It can get a little depressing; sometimes feels like I live in a model home. Y’know. It’s… empty. Flat, I guess. Not a lot of personality to it. It could honestly stand to look a little more like this.” He looked around again, smiling.

           They were silent for a moment. Allura searched for something to say, but to her surprise, Shiro spoke first. “So… how’s work going?”

            She sat back, glad to have something to talk about. “Where to begin? It’s… the same as normal, I guess. Stressful. High-strung manager. Demanding customers. And…” She hesitated and glanced at Shiro, gauging whether to tell him. They were friends, so she might as well…

            “What?” Shiro frowned. “Did something happen?”

            Allura sighed. “There’s this one customer who’s… sort of a creep.” She grimaced. “He’s in his twenties, blonde, kind of seems like a frat guy… just looks like trouble, you know?” She glanced at Shiro. He was still watching her, his eyebrows drawn together with concern. “He’s been flirting with me recently, and there’s not much I can do besides grin and bear it.”

            “Is he…” Shiro hesitated. “Is he… bothering you?”

            She shrugged. “I’ve had worse customers. This is just different because he’s been coming back.”

            Shiro sat back. “I don’t suppose there’s any way I can help.”

            “I don’t think so. Aside from maybe being a witness that he was harassing me if I end up punching him. Which I might.” She stared at the floor for a moment, and then shut her eyes. “Let’s talk about something else. Why did you want to come over here?”

            There was another long pause. Shiro looked down at the floor, and Allura could tell that this subject was probably a touchy one. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” she said.

            “No, I probably should. I asked to come over on such short notice, the least I can do is tell you why.” He took a deep breath and spoke without looking up at her. “It’s… my dad. Keith warned me he was going to come over to talk to me today, and I don’t talk to him if I don’t have to, but… I can’t just hide in my apartment for the whole day.”

            “So you’re hiding somewhere outside your apartment,” Allura replied.

            Shiro slowly nodded, looking a little ashamed. “I really do appreciate you letting me hang out here for the day.”

            Allura shifted to get a little more comfortable. “So… you and your father don’t get along very well, I take it?”

            Shiro smiled grimly. “That’s a way of putting it.” He hesitated. “Do you want the short version, or the long one?”

            “Whichever one you want to tell.”

            There was a long pause while Shiro debated with himself. Finally, he sighed, sat back, and began, “About a month before I graduated from high school, I had a… disagreement with my dad.” His knee started to bob up and down like he was nervous, but he quickly stopped. Instead he picked up something off of the end table- a pencil- and started twirling it as he spoke.

            “I wanted to go to college. He wanted me to stay home- said the degree wasn’t worth anything, and that college would cost an arm and a leg.” Shiro paused and looked down at his prosthetic. “I mean, I guess he was _half_ right. I joined the military in order to pay for college, and, well… you can guess what happened.”

            “I see,” Allura said quietly. She couldn’t imagine having that sort of relationship with her father. Or going through what he must have in order to get to where he was now. “And have you spoken to him since?”

            “On occasion,” Shiro admitted. “If I have to.”

            Allura shifted to pull her feet up onto the chair. “That must have been hard for you.”

            “It was… difficult, at first,” Shiro conceded. “But I got used to it pretty fast. I mean, we’d never really gotten along, and he’d always tended to focus more on Keith than on me. So, not much changed except that I was on my own as far as money went. He cut me off completely, and I changed my name and basically did my best to pretend we weren’t related.” He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. “We didn’t even speak to each other again until sometime last year, and I’ve only talked to him over the phone since then.”

            They were silent for a moment. Shiro seemed to be finished talking about his father, but Allura wasn’t sure, so she waited for him to speak again. Finally, he sighed and looked up at her. “So, what kind of relationship do you have with your dad? Do you guys get along?”

            Allura looked down at the carpet. “My father passed away,” she told him. “Two years ago.”

            “Oh.” Shiro sat up. “I- I’m sorry to hear that. Can I… can I ask what happened?”

            “Our house caught fire,” Allura murmured, keeping her gaze down. She could still remember the feeling of standing on the lawn and watching her house- her childhood, her home, her _life-_ engulfed in flames. “He died from smoke inhalation before the firefighters could get him help.”

            “Allura, I’m…” Shiro’s expression was difficult to read- a mixture of sadness and worry, maybe. “I’m so sorry.”

            She didn’t respond. She didn’t even move for a long time. When she felt ready, she took a deep breath and told him again, “Let’s talk about something else.” She looked up, and just then, she realized that there was something in the window behind Shiro. She leaned to the side to get a better look. “Shiro, there’s a cat on the windowsill!”

            She’d never seen it before. It was mostly black, with a white muzzle and white patches all over. It stood there staring expectantly into the apartment, tail waving.

            “What?” Shiro turned around, and when he saw the cat, he grinned. “Oh. That’s Skye. Looks like she found me.”

            “Skye?” Allura got to her feet and then hesitated, unsure whether approaching the window would scare the cat away.

            “Well, that’s what I call her. She’s been coming to my window in the last few days.”

            “Who does she belong to?”

            “Nobody, I think.” Shiro got up. “I’m pretty sure she’s a stray. Do you mind if I open the window? I don’t think she’ll jump through.”

            “It’s fine if she does,” Allura replied. “I like cats.”

            Shiro opened the window. Skye meowed, looking vaguely accusatory. “Yeah, I know,” Shiro told her. “I’m not in my usual spot. And I haven’t got any food for you.” He glanced up and saw Allura hovering nearby. “You can probably pet her,” he said. “She’s pretty friendly. Just wash your hands afterwards.”

            “I’m fine just looking.” Allura had never had any pets. Not because she hadn’t wanted any, but because neither she nor her father had ever had enough time to dedicate to taking care of an animal. She’s always loved other people’s pets, though.

            Skye meowed again and bumped her head against Shiro’s arm. He smiled and scratched behind her ear. As he did, he told Allura, “Skye just started showing up a few days ago. I guess she’s adopted me.”

            “Do you think you’re going to keep her?”

            “I don’t know,” Shiro replied, rubbing between the cat’s ears. It purred and tilted its head so he could reach easier. “I mean, I can definitely afford it. I’d have to figure out how to get her to the vet and everything, though. She could probably use it. And I’ve never had a pet before.”

           “I have,” Allura told him. “I can give you pointers if you have any trouble. If you do decide to keep her.”

            Just then, Shiro’s phone rang. The noise startled Skye- she leaped off the windowsill and landed on the fire escape, and from there, she ran off and disappeared. Shiro pulled out his phone, and when he saw the caller ID, his jaw tightened. He glanced up at Allura apologetically. “Sorry. I… should take this.”

            He stepped away to face the wall and hit “talk,” but before he could say anything, Allura heard a man’s voice from the other end. She couldn’t make out the words, but he didn’t sound pleased. After a moment Shiro said, “I’m not at home today.”

           More angry words.

           “You should’ve called first,” Shiro replied levelly. Then, after another short tirade, “I don’t see what Keith has to do with any of this.”

          Pause.

          “No.”

          Pause.

          “Yes, we still talk. Look, are you calling to talk to me about Keith? Did something happen?” Shiro put his free hand on his hip and half turned away from the wall, but his eyes were still on the carpet. His expression was cold and closed-off; Allura had never seen that kind of look on his face. He was always smiling when he looked at her. This was unnerving to see.

          He was still talking to his father. “Then I don’t see what the problem is. Next time, just call first.” He was silent for another moment. His father had lowered his voice to a normal volume, and Allura couldn’t hear him anymore. “Sure.”

          A moment later, Shiro sighed. “Yeah.” He glanced quickly at Allura and cleared his throat. “Bye… Dad.”

          Then he took the phone away from his ear and ended the call. “Well, that could have gone much worse,” he said lightly, turning to smile at her.

          But Allura could easily tell his expression was forced. “Are you okay?”

          His smile slowly faded, and he didn’t reply right away. “I could be worse,” he said after a moment. “Like I said, I avoid talking to him. At least with this, he’ll probably leave me alone for a while.”

           “That’s… good, I suppose.” Allura sat down in her chair, and a moment later, Shiro took his seat on the couch again. Allura picked up her phone and checked her messages, and after a moment, she realized Shiro was watching her and smiling softly. She gave him a puzzled look. “What?”

          Just then, his expression changed somehow; maybe his smile was wider, or maybe he relaxed a little. Whatever it was, the tension he’d gotten when speaking to his father just melted away. “I was just thinking how glad I am that I met you,” he said quietly.

          Allura stared at him for a second, and then quickly looked down at her phone. She cleared her throat. “I’m glad I met you, too,” she said. When she glanced up, Shiro was still smiling, so she hazarded, “I’m glad I met you, too. And…” She braced herself. “You can come over whenever you need to. Whether it’s to avoid your father or just if you want to talk to someone.”

          Shiro’s smiled widened further. Allura noticed that his eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled. She liked that. “Thank you,” Shiro said. “That’s very kind of you.”

          Allura cleared her throat and looked down again, hoping her blush didn’t show.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This and Lifeline are the only two of my fics that I can think of off the top of my head where there's issues with someone's dad. Not all my fics include an asshole dad. I promise.
> 
> I know this chapter was a little low on fluff, but Shiro and Allura needed to find out more about each other and become a little closer friends. I mean, you wouldn't let someone you hardly know sleep over in your apartment, would you?
> 
> Thanks to NerdyOatmeal for beta!
> 
> Find me on tumblr [here!](http://severalsmallhedgehogs.tumblr.com/)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The POV kind of jumps around in this chapter, I hope it's not too difficult to follow.

          After that first Saturday, Allura and Shiro hung out nearly every weekend. Apparently Shiro hadn’t made a lot of friends at work; when Allura cautiously asked why, he explained that he’d just moved to the city a couple of months ago.

          “That’s why I’d never seen you before!” Allura exclaimed, sitting up. They were in her apartment; Allura sat in her chair with her feet up, and Shiro was on the couch across from her. She’d cleaned up since the first time he came over, so he wasn’t sitting next to a pile of laundry anymore.

          Shiro looked confused. “You’d never seen me before… when?”

          “That first day I met you!” When Shiro only continued to look at her blankly, Allura sat forward and put her feet down. “You remember, it was late at night and it was raining? You gave me your umbrella?” She blinked. “Oh, I never gave that back to you, did I?”

          “I… think I remember saying you can keep it,” Shiro said slowly.

          “I’d feel bad if I kept it,” Allura replied, getting to her feet. “I can get my own. It’s around here somewhere, just let me find it…” She wandered into the hallway and opened the closet near the door. The umbrella was on the shelf above the coat rack. Allura grabbed it and took it back out to Shiro. “Catch,” she told him, and threw it underhanded.

          He caught it with his left hand. “That was a pretty good throw,” he commented. “You ever play any sports?”

          “No,” she replied, taking her seat again. “I used to do some martial arts when I was younger, though. And I was in a club in college. But lately, not so much. I’ve gotten out of shape.”

          “You could come to the gym with me,” Shiro suggested. “It’s no dojo, but if you want to get some exercise…” He shrugged. “And, I mean, I could use a gym buddy, too. Two birds with one stone.”

           Allura considered, and after a moment, she told him, “We’ll see. I like to spend my evenings asleep, when I can manage it. But I’ll think about it.” She offered him a quick smile. They were silent for a moment before she thought of something else to ask. “Hey, Shiro, about the day I met you…”

           “Yeah?”

           “Why were you so dressed up at eleven o’clock at night?”

           Shiro blinked. And then he looked down at the carpet. If Allura didn’t know any better, she would’ve thought he might’ve been blushing. “Oh. Well.” Shiro rubbed the back of his neck and laughed awkwardly. “Uh. I was… I was on a date.” He glanced up and, seeing her incredulous expression, asked, “What?”

           “You were wearing slacks and a dress shirt. And a _tie._ ”

           He was definitely blushing now. “It was all I had,” he informed her. “It was our first date, and she wanted to meet in some really classy restaurant… I was actually pretty underdressed.”

           Allura raised her eyebrows. “For the first date? She sounds, um…”

           “Yeah.” Shiro laughed briefly. “Neither of us had much fun. I’m more of a ‘stay at home and watch TV’ sort of guy. I’m not great with fancy dates.”

           “Do you go on a lot of them?” Allura asked, silently berating herself. Why was she asking? What if he thought it was invasive? What if he thought she was flirting with him? Well, she kind of _wanted_ to do that last one, but she didn’t want to flirt with him and then have him feel like it was weird…

           To her relief, Shiro didn’t seem suspicious. “No, not really.” He laughed awkwardly, again. “I, uh… I’m a little out of shape in that regard. I haven’t dated anyone steadily since…” He paused, thinking. “Since my senior year of high school. Wow. I feel old. And it’s just been a string of first dates ever since.” He looked up at Allura. “What about you?”

           “I don’t have time to date,” she replied, hoping he wouldn’t notice she wasn’t meeting his eyes. In reality, she just hadn’t met anyone she wanted to date. Not until she met Shiro.

           And oh boy, did she want to date Shiro. His idea of a date sounded just about perfect to her, if she added ordering a pizza. Eating pizza and sitting on the couch watching TV for a date? Absolute heaven.

          But she never brought that up, and Shiro never gave any indication that he was interested in her. She resolved to just enjoy the friendship. After all, she still got to spend time with him, and that was good enough, wasn’t it? They looked out for each other. Allura borrowed his vacuum cleaner when she needed it. Shiro came over in the afternoons to talk or watch movies, and if they ate lunch or dinner together, he helped with the dishes. Once he even taught her how to make fried rice.

          “This was one of my favorites in college,” he told her while they were working. “One of my roommates taught me how to make it. You can put in pretty much anything you want, so it’s a good way to get rid of leftover chicken or vegetables or whatever you have. Plus, if you make a lot of plain rice, you can use any extra rice you have as a base for something else.”

          “Like red beans and rice,” Allura noted. Her mother had loved red beans and rice, apparently, especially when it had bacon or sausage in it. She’d been too young to remember when her mother died, but she could always tell when her father was missing her. On days when the loss was hurting him badly again, he’d always made red beans and rice.

          She didn’t mention this to Shiro.

          “I don’t think I’ve ever had that before,” Shiro said, pulling Allura out of her thoughts. “Could you teach me how to make it sometime?”

          Allura cleared her throat. “Of course.”

________

          That Friday, Allura accidentally locked herself out of her apartment.

          It wouldn’t have been all that bad if she’d noticed right away. But no, she didn’t realize she didn’t have her keys until she got back to her apartment a little after nine, fished around in her purse, and realized she didn’t have her keys. She panicked for a minute, thinking she might have dropped them somewhere. But she’d had her purse zipped the entire time… And she didn’t think someone could have taken the keys out of her purse, because her wallet and her phone were both still there…

           After a moment of trying to recall when she’d last seen her keys, she realized that she’d left them on a table next to the couch. She clearly remembered grabbing her phone and her wallet, but not her keys.

           With a sigh, she pulled out her phone and called a locksmith. She got a message saying they were closed for the day.

           “Dammit!” she ended the call and switched over to her contacts. She scrolled through for a moment, debating who to text. Her first instinct was to text Coran, but he was rarely up this late and she didn’t want to wake him if she didn’t have to.  She reached the _S_ section of her contacts and stopped when she spotted the name _Takashi Shirogane._ Shiro might still be awake, but he had his own life to deal with. She couldn’t just drop in on him…

            After a moment, she picked one and sent a text. She waited a few minutes, but there was no response. She shut her eyes briefly, and then set out down the hall.

 

            It was nine fifteen at night when Shiro heard a knock on his door. He looked up at the clock in surprise. Who would show up at this hour?

            He went to the door and looked through the peephole. Then he stepped back, blinked, and opened the door. “Allura? What are you doing here so late? What happened?”

            She was wearing her waitress uniform, and she looked as frazzled as she had the day he first met her. He gave her a quick once-over, fearing for a second that something might have happened to her on her way home. She had her purse, and she didn’t _look_ like she was hurt…

            “Nothing happened,” Allura assured him. “I’m okay.” She rubbed her arm, not looking him in the eye. “I mean, I’m not hurt. I’m just… locked out of my apartment. I forgot my keys inside. And the locksmith won’t be able to come until tomorrow.” She hesitated, and then took a deep breath and looked up at him. “I was wondering if I could sleep here.”

            “Of course you can,” he said immediately, stepping aside. “Come on in. Have you had dinner yet?”

            She stepped inside and shook her head. “I haven’t had anything to eat since about noon.”

            “I have leftovers,” Shiro told her, shutting the door and heading for the kitchen.

            “You don’t have to…” Allura trailed off when her stomach audibly growled. “I don’t want to be too much of an imposition.”

            “It’s fine,” Shiro replied. Then he added sheepishly, “I haven’t had dinner yet, either.”

            Shiro warmed up a couple plates of fried rice in the microwave, and then set one in front of Allura and took a seat across the table from her. “It’s not great food, but it’s all I’ve got,” he told her.

            Allura smiled and picked up her fork. “I normally eat microwave dinners,” she informed him. “This is great.”

            Shiro waited until she was almost done to ask, “How come you didn’t text me? I would’ve walked you over.”

            “I did,” she replied. “You never responded.”

            “Really?” Shiro pulled out his phone and realized he’d forgotten to take it off silent after he left work. “Oh. Sorry about that.”

            “Don’t be. I shouldn’t be texting people at night.” Allura finished her dinner and sat back. After a moment of silence, she looked up at him. “I really appreciate you letting me sleep on your couch,” she told him.

            “What? No,” Shiro said, straightening. “I’ll take the couch. You can have the bed.”

            Allura sighed. “Shiro, I’m not kicking you out of your bed. I’ll sleep on the couch.”

            “You seem like you’ve had a rough night,” Shiro replied. “I don’t want to make you sleep out here.”

            “You’re not. I’m volunteering to.”

            There was a pause while Shiro appeared to consider what to say next. “Tell you what,” Shiro said. “I’ve got a couple of sleeping bags from back when I had time to go camping. Maybe we can compromise and both sleep on the floor.”

            Allura nodded. “That sounds fine. Thank you.”

            Shiro went and got the sleeping bags, and Allura started setting hers up. Shiro disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a couple of pillows. “Thank you,” she said, taking one, and then stopped and blinked. Shiro had changed into gray plaid pajama pants and a plain black t-shirt.

           This whole arrangement was starting to feel like the sleepovers she’d had with her friends in elementary school. Except with a guy. A guy who she had a hopeless crush on. And with nobody else in the apartment.

           He noticed her watching him and glanced down at himself, and then looked back up at her. “Do… uh, do you… want to borrow some clothes?” he asked haltingly. “To sleep in? I can get you some sweatpants and a shirt. They’d be completely clean,” he added quickly when Allura raised her eyebrows.

           Allura studied him for a second, and then slowly nodded again. “Yes, I’d really appreciate that. Thank you.”

           He headed into the back room and came back with a pair of black sweatpants and a blue t-shirt not unlike the one he was already wearing. Allura accepted them locked herself in the bathroom to change. She had to pull the drawstring tight on the sweatpants to keep them up; the shirt hung on her like a tent.

           Once she was dressed, she stood for a moment front of the mirror and just stared at herself. She was _wearing Shiro’s clothes._ She looked so ridiculous she giggled.

           When she headed back out into the main room, Shiro had finished setting up his sleeping bag and removed his prosthetic arm. He was sitting on the couch holding a remote in his hand, and when she emerged, he looked up and grinned. “Looks a little big on you.”

           “You sound surprised,” Allura said, sitting down next to him. “What now? Are we going to sleep?”

           “I was going to try to find something on TV.” He gestured with the remote. “But we can go to sleep if you want to.”

           “No, I’m all right with TV,” Allura replied. Anything to stay up a little longer with him.

           They watched a couple of late-night shows, and when those ceased to be interesting, Shiro checked his recordings. Allura spotted a show she knew and pointed it out. They talked during commercial breaks and sometimes over the show, which meant they kept having to rewind.

            After a little while, Allura glanced at the clock. “Oh. It’s 2am.”

            Shiro checked his phone. “Wow. You’re right!” He laughed. “This is the latest I’ve stayed up since I got out of college!”

            “I wish I could say the same,” Allura replied, recalling late-night-shifts at various jobs. “I suppose we should go to sleep.”

            “Yeah.” Shiro got to his feet and yawned. She’d never seen him yawn before; he had a really big kind of yawn. It was a little cute, actually. “I’ll get the lights.”

            Allura climbed into her sleeping bag and almost giggled again. The absurdity of this all just kept reoccurring to her. “Just like a sleepover,” she said to herself.

            “Huh?” Shiro asked, pausing with his hand on the light switch.

            “Nothing,” she replied. “Talking to myself.”

            “All right. Lights out, then.”

            The lights flicked off. Allura heard footsteps, and then rustling from somewhere to the side as Shiro settled into his sleeping bag. “Good night,” he said.

            “Good night,” she replied. Then she heard more rustling as Shiro got comfortable, followed by a quiet sigh.

            She was silent for a long time, listening to the faint noise of traffic outside. A car beeped outside. Somewhere off in the distance, she could hear a quiet police siren. The building creaked.

             Allura lay awake and stared at the ceiling, still not quite ready to go to sleep. There was something intimate about the darkness, something she didn’t want to lose quite yet, because she knew that by the time she woke up, it would be morning and this would be over. She didn’t want this to be over. She rolled onto her side.

            “Shiro?” she asked softly, not sure if he was still awake.

            “Yeah?” was the drowsy reply.

            She paused, trying to think of what to say. She briefly considered telling him how much this meant to her. But what she told him instead was, “Thank you.”

            There was another pause. “You’re welcome,” Shiro mumbled. Then he yawned again and added, “Any time. You’re welcome… anytime.”

            Then he shifted a little, and she heard his breathing change and she knew he was asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The best part about being an adult is having no adult supervision. Which means nobody can tell you that you can’t camp on the floor in a sleeping bag, or have a 17-hour Haikyuu marathon with various friends, acquaintances, and random people who just walked in and sat down to watch. Which is totally not something I have done.
> 
> Yes, I'm aware that this was not what you guys were expecting when I talked about sleeping over. :)
> 
> Thanks to Carly for beta!
> 
> Find me on tumblr [here!](http://severalsmallhedgehogs.tumblr.com/)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, guys! Also, apologies that this chapter isn't quite as long as usual. I was on a roll with an original story I've been working on, and when I got back to this, I realized I'd lost my momentum. :/

           In the morning, a loud knocking woke Allura. She jolted upright and looked around blearily. It took her a moment to remember where she was and why. Sunlight- _daylight-_ streamed around the curtains, so the apartment was pretty well lit. How late had she slept in?

           “Shiro?” She looked to her right and saw that he was just now sitting up, rubbing his eyes and yawning. His hair was sticking up on the left side of his head, and the hem of his shirt was hitched up, exposing a strip of skin above the waistband of his pajama pants. Allura tried not to stare.

           The pounding noise came again; somebody was at the front door.

           “I’ll get it,” Shiro muttered, getting to his feet and straightening his shirt. As soon as he took a step, though, his foot tangled in his sleeping bag and he stumbled forward. He quickly recovered and plodded, zombie-like, over to the door.

           She watched him look through the peephole, and then unlock the door and open it. “Keith,” he said, sounding only mildly surprised. He squinted past his brother at the buildings outside. Then he looked over his shoulder at the curtains, and then back at his brother. “What time is it?”

           “Eleven o’clock,” Keith replied. “I texted you a couple of times, but you weren’t answering.”

           “Yeah… I was asleep.” Shiro stepped away from the door and headed back into the living room to check his phone. “Wow,” he said as Keith stepped inside behind him and shut the door. “We really slept in.”

           “We?” Keith repeated. Then he spotted Allura and froze. He looked between his brother and Allura, taking in their disheveled states. Suddenly, he looked mildly horrified. “Uh. Should I… should l leave…?”

            Shiro looked at him in confusion. He seemed to understand Keith’s question at the exact same moment Allura did.

           “No!” they both exclaimed at the same time. They looked at each other, and then back to Keith. “No, no, no,” Shiro added. “Allura got locked out of her apartment, so she slept here.”

           “On the floor,” Keith clarified, his eyes on the sleeping bags. “With you.” Then he looked up at Allura with an expression that was difficult to read.

           Under Keith’s scrutiny, Allura felt a few different emotions in quick succession- first, embarrassment. For sleeping on the floor, and for _enjoying_ it. Then, defensiveness. Sleeping on the floor hadn’t hurt anybody. It wasn’t like she and Shiro had done anything wrong. Third, she felt irritated with herself. Keith was just a kid. Was she really going to let a weird look from a _sixteen-year-old_ make her feel ashamed? Yeah, she’d slept on the floor with Shiro, and yeah, it had felt great to hear him say “goodnight” back to her. And yeah, of course she’d do it again in a heartbeat. That was nothing to be embarrassed about.

          Fourth, she wondered how Shiro felt about this. He was probably more immune to weird looks from his little brother, but then, maybe he cared a little more about what Keith thought of him. Allura was just looking over at him to gauge his reaction when Shiro put one hand on his hip and frowned sternly.

           “Yes,” he said to Keith. “Both of us slept on the floor. This is _my apartment,_ Keith. What does or doesn’t happen here is _my_ business. Not yours. And definitely not dad’s,” he added, raising his eyebrows. “In case you’re wondering whether you need to report this to him. Really, he shouldn’t be sending you to report on me at all. That _is_ what you’re here to do, isn’t it?” He raised his eyebrows.

           Keith blinked, apparently caught off-guard, but he didn’t deny it. After a moment, he lost the staring contest with his brother and looked to the side. “He told me you’re avoiding him.”

           “I am.” Shiro turned to pick up his sleeping bag, and then he spotted Allura and blinked. Apparently he’d momentarily forgotten she was there. “When is the locksmith supposed to come let you in?” he asked her.

           “I haven’t called him yet,” Allure replied. “The place should be open by now, though. I’ll go ahead and call.” She fished her cell phone out of her purse and headed into the kitchen to make her call. She felt like she should let the brothers have a couple minutes to talk without her standing there trying to get a locksmith in the background.

           Once she’d made the appointment, she headed back out in to the living room. Whatever Shiro and Keith had talked about, they seemed to be finished. Shiro had reattached his prosthetic arm sometime while she was gone, and he was rolling up his sleeping bag.

           “He’ll be here around one,” Allura told him, going over to start rolling up her own sleeping bag.

           “Well, you’re welcome to stay here until he does.” Shiro glanced at Keith. “You can hang around, too, if you want.”

           Keith glanced at the door, and then at his phone. Then he shrugged. “Fine.” He watched them for a moment before asking, “You got anything to eat?”

           Shiro glanced up at him, and one corner of his mouth quirked. “I still have celery.”

           “You are the worst brother ever.”

           “Hey, I bought my food for myself. You want to eat here, either give me some warning or just bring your own.” Shiro got to his feet and tucked his sleeping bag under his arm. “I can put that away for you,” he told Allura, holding out his hand for her sleeping bag.

           “Thanks.” She handed it to him and stood as he left to put the sleeping bags back wherever he got them from. Allura and Keith stood and looked at each other awkwardly for a minute. Then Allura went and got her waitress uniform from the chair she’d left it on in the dining room. She went into the bathroom to change, and when she emerged, Shiro had returned and Keith was gone.

           Allura looked around. “Where’s Keith?”

           “Said something about having other stuff to do,” Shiro replied, sitting down on the couch. “Want to keep watching that show from last night?”

           “That sounds good.” Allura plopped down next to him and pulled her feet up on the couch. Shiro’s living room felt different in the daylight. Not as cozy. Too similar to all the other times she’d hung out here in the past.

            At some point, Shiro got up to use the bathroom, leaving Allura in the living room by herself. She kept watching the TV, and she would have stayed there until Shiro came back if she hadn’t become aware of a soft whirring noise getting steadily closer.

            Just as she started looking for the source, she spotted a Roomba roll past the couch. It took her a moment to process that it had a pair of large googly eyes glued to the front. She stared at it as it trundled by.

            Shiro came back just as the Roomba bumped into a wall and started away in another direction. He found Allura peering over the back of the couch, watching it. “Allura?” he asked, puzzled.

            She looked up. “Your Roomba has eyes on it.”

            He grinned sheepishly. “Yeah. Pidge put those on there and started calling it “Rover.” Said I could use the company.”

            Allura laughed, but the mention of Shiro needing company reminded her: “What about that cat, Skye? How’s she doing?”

            “Pretty well,” Shiro replied as he sat down. “She shows up here most evenings. I’m thinking about seeing if I can get her to a vet and get papers adopt her or something. I’ve always wanted a cat. Do you know how that stuff usually works?”

            Allura shook her head. “Sorry. My father took care of getting the cat, when we had one.”

            “Oh. All right.” They sat in silence for a little while, both staring at the TV screen, but neither of them said anything about maybe starting up the show again. At length, Shiro looked over at Allura and gave a half smile.  “We should do this again sometime,” he said. A second later he quickly added, “I mean, not you getting locked out of your apartment, but the, the…”

            “The sleepover,” Allura supplied.

            He nodded, smiling again. “Yeah. The sleepover. It was fun.” He glanced over his shoulder at the door. “Maybe it should be at your apartment next time, though.”

            “More space,” Allura agreed.

            “Fewer people knocking on the door and waking us up.”

            “That sounds like a plan,” Allura told him, smiling.

            Shiro smiled back at her, with the corners of his eyes crinkling, and Allura had the sudden urge to kiss him. She blinked, hoping it didn’t show on her face, and looked back at the TV screen. “Do you have the remote?” She asked. “We should probably start up the episode again.”

            “Right,” Shiro replied, sounding a little startled. “The show. Sure.” He picked up the remote and hit play, and neither of them spoke again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No beta for this one since I'm on Spring Break. As usual, feel free to point out misspelled words and grammatical errors.
> 
> Find me on tumblr [here!](http://severalsmallhedgehogs.tumblr.com/)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DO SHE GOT A BOOTY? SHE DOOOOOO
> 
> Longer chapter today, I hope it makes up for the shorter one last time. Enjoy!

            That next Saturday, Allura went to the gym with Shiro. But they never made it to the room with the workout machines; instead, as they passed a room with a high ceiling, Allura stopped in her tracks. Shiro didn’t notice for a few paces; he had to stop and go back to her. “What is it?”

            “There’s a climbing wall in here?” Allura asked, staring. The room had a desk at the front, just inside the doorway, and behind it was three artificial rock climbing walls. There were only about five people inside, not including the two people at the desk, so it was pretty empty.

            Shiro looked between her and the wall. After a second he asked, “You want to do that instead?”

            “Yes,” she replied immediately, and headed for the desk.

            There was some paperwork to fill out, and then they got rental shoes to climb in. One of the guys from the desk explained that each course was marked with colored tape under the hand- and footholds, and then he left them on their own.

            “Well,” Shiro began, looking up at the wall. But he didn’t say anything else. He couldn’t think of anything else to say. The endings of the free-climb courses were only about fifteen feet up, but he was wary of climbing without any belay to keep him from falling.

            “There’s mats,” Allura noted, walking over to one and dragging it back over to to Shiro. It was nearly a foot thick, he realized. “This is one of the beginner courses, right?” She looked up the wall.

            “I think so,” he replied, eying the mat, and then the wall. “Are you going to be okay?”

            She grinned, and then wordlessly went to the wall and started up. She paused with every new handhold or foothold, trying to see where she should go next. Shiro watched with growing worry. Wouldn’t she hurt herself if she fell?

            But Allura reached the top without any problems. Then she climbed halfway back down and paused, looking down at the mat. Without warning, she jumped away from the wall and landed on her feet on the mat. Shiro, who had inhaled sharply when she pushed away from the wall, let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

            Allura laughed. “That was fun! Do you want to go?”

            Shiro looked at her, and then up at the wall. “Sure,” he said after a second.

            As it turned out, climbing wasn’t as easy as Allura had made it look. How had she made it seem so effortless? He felt like he looked strange, pulling his knee up to his chest in order to get one foot on a foothold. Then, about halfway up, he looked around and realized he was stuck.

            He stayed there for a couple of seconds, debating. Should he just climb back down? Or jump, like Allura had? His hands were already getting tired, so he couldn’t hang here for very long…

            Then Allura spoke up. “You’ve got a foothold to your right,” she said. “And a handhold just above your left hand.”

            Oh. She was right. He made his way up the rest of the way without any help, but ended up climbing all the way back down, rather than jumping like Allura had. He wasn’t a huge fan of heights, and he doubted he would land as gracefully as Allura had.

            After that, Allura led him to another course and started to make her way up. But part of it required somehow swinging around a corner, and when she reached for a handhold, she slipped and fell onto the mat.

            Shiro leaned over her worriedly. “Are you all right?”

            She smiled and sat up. “I’m fine,” she replied. “The mats do their job.”

            She went at that course a couple more times, but fell each time before she could reach the handhold she was going for. After her third fall, she sat up and propped her hands behind her, frowning at the wall. “…Maybe I should take a rest,” she said at last. Then she got to her feet and flexed her hands. “My arms feel tight.”

            “Mine, too,” Shiro said. “Maybe…” He looked around and spotted someone else across the room pressing their palms together, elbows out. He tried it. “This feels like it helps,” he told her. Allura copied him and nodded, already looking back up at the wall as if studying where the footholds were.

            Allura kept climbing; she seemed to be having fun. Shiro mostly stayed on the ground, watching Allura climb from a few feet behind the mat. And then he moved to a few feet to the side of the mat. And then to the other side.

            But no matter where he stood, he couldn’t seem to keep his eyes on her hands or feet. After a couple more climbs, he could only hope Allura didn’t notice that his attention kept drifting to her rear end. It was kind of difficult to look at anything else.

            “Got it!” Allura called from the top of the course.

            “Nice!” Shiro replied, trying desperately to keep his eyes on her face as she turned her head and grinned down at him.

            Allura jumped off the wall, and Shiro finally managed to keep himself from gasping out loud. He _hated_ when she did that.

            “You want a go?” Allura asked cheerfully, getting to her feet and dusting off her yoga pants. They’d originally been black, but now they had a light dusting of chalk and a few partial fingerprints on them from when Allura had put her hands on her hips with chalk on her fingers.

            Shiro cleared his throat. “Sure.”

            Climbing wasn’t much less embarrassing. He kept slipping. And it didn’t get much better after Allura offered him the chalk bag. All it seemed to do was get chalk all over his pants. And only his pants.

            After a couple of failed tries at the course Allura had just completed, Shiro tried a different course nearby. It was one that was at a bit of a backwards angle, so you weren’t quite climbing perpendicular to the floor anymore. It was harder to hold on to that one. Shiro could barely get a few feet off the floor, which was sort of embarrassing.

            Finally, the third time he fell, he just sighed and just stayed there on his back on the mat. Maybe climbing really wasn’t his sport. He was tall, sure, and he had some muscle, but he was also pretty heavy. And his grip strength apparently wasn’t great.

            Abruptly Allura’s face appeared above him. “Are you all right?” she inquired.

            “Uh. Yeah,” he said, blinking. She was leaning over with her hands on her knees, and some of her hair had escaped the bun and hung in curls around her face. Her eyes were blue. How had he never noticed her eyes were blue? And there was a line that formed between her eyebrows when she looked concerned. As she did now. Because he was still lying flat on his back, staring up at her.

            “Shiro?” she asked, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

            He cleared his throat and quickly rolled to the side so he could get up. “Maybe you should take another turn,” he told her, clapping his hands together in an attempt to get rid of some of the chalk. His fingers were red at the joints, and his forearms ached.

            After another ten minutes or so, Allura seemed to notice Shiro wasn’t having a lot of fun climbing. “Sorry,” she said. “Do you still want to go work out, or…?”

            Shiro gave a half smile. “I’ve had a pretty good workout already,” he told her, displaying the blisters on his hands. Allura grinned and showed him her own sore fingers in response.

 

            After that, they headed back to their apartments. But no sooner had Allura finished showering and gotten dressed again than her phone rang, and Shiro’s name appeared on the display. She picked it up and hit _talk._ “Hello?”

            “Hi,” Shiro replied. “I was just, uh, wondering if I could come over and hang out at your apartment for a while.”

            She paused. “Is your dad coming over again?”

            “What?” Shiro laughed. “No, I just- I wanted to hang out with you a while longer. Or- sorry, do you already have plans?”

            “No,” she replied. “You can come on over.”

            A little while later, he was knocking on the door. Allura got up from the couch to let him in. They sat down in their usual spots and turned on the TV. While they watched, they discussed whatever came up: work, Skye, Coran. Shiro seemed to like hearing about Coran.

            “Maybe I’ll introduce you to him sometime,” Allura said thoughtfully. “I think you two would get along fairly well.”

            Shiro slowly nodded.  “Yeah, I’d like to meet him sometime.”         

            Hours passed. Shiro stayed for dinner; they had leftovers from Allura’s fridge. Then they did the dishes together and returned to the couch. They finished the season finale of the show they were watching, and then Allura looked up at the clock and blinked in surprise.

            “It’s… midnight,” she said aloud. Time always seemed to pass much more quickly when she was with Shiro. She looked over at him and cracked a smile. “Want to sleep over?”

            He smiled back. “Yeah. I’ll take the couch, if that’s all right.” He looked at the clock, and then back at her. They were silent for a moment, both thinking the same thing.

            Allura spoke first. “Or _…_ ” She smiled. “ _Or,_ we can camp on the floor.”

            “I can go get the sleeping bags from my apartment,” Shiro said.

            Allura laughed. “We can cook marshmallows in the microwave.”

            “That sounds like a bad idea.” Shiro got to his feet. “I’ll get the sleeping bags if you’ll find the marshmallows.”

            “Deal. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

            To her surprise, when he returned wearing his pajamas, he wasn’t just carrying the sleeping bags; he also held several blankets. “I had this idea while I was over at my place,” he said as he stepped inside again. “So, hear me out… how about a blanket fort?”

             Allura nodded. “A blanket fort sounds perfect.”

             So, they made a blanket fort. As soon as it was finished, Allura climbed inside, flopped over on her back, and laughed. “I haven’t made one of these since I was little!”

             Shiro knelt near the entrance and peered inside. “Me and Keith used to make them a lot when he was younger,” he told her, smiling distantly.

             “What happened?” Allura asked, sitting up. 

             Shiro shrugged. “He decided he was too old for them.”

             There was a pause where Allura and Shiro looked up at the fort, and then back at each other. They both grinned. “He must not realize what he’s missing out on,” Allura decided. “I don’t see an age limit anywhere on this.”

             They laid out their sleeping bags in the blanket fort, and then they got ready to go to bed. Shiro left his prosthetic on the dining table, where he could easily find it.

             Because of the limited space, they were a lot closer together than they had been when Allura slept over in Shiro’s apartment. There was less than a foot of space between them. Allura tried not to think about it as she turned off the lights and climbed into her sleeping bag.  
 

             Sometime later that night, hours before sunrise, Allura woke. Had it been something around her that had woken her? Maybe the air conditioning turning on? Or maybe she’d just had a dream?

             Then she heard a noise off to the side- it sounded like someone breathing. Her heart skipped a beat. It sounded like there was another person in her apartment.

             Then she remembered that Shiro had slept over. She’d probably woken up when he turned over in his sleep, or something. She shifted onto her side and squinted, trying to see through the darkness.

             Shiro was sitting up. Hunched over. Clutching his right shoulder and breathing through clenched teeth.

             “Shiro?” she murmured, pushing herself up on one elbow. “What’s wrong?”

             His head snapped up and he stared at her for a moment. She could just barely see that his eyes were wide and his expression was tight with pain. He didn’t seem to be completely awake; it seemed like he didn’t quite recognize her.

             She frowned and sat up the rest of the way. “Shiro?” she repeated, concerned.

             Abruptly Shiro let his hand drop, and he straightened a little. “Oh,” he said, sounding relieved. “Allura. You’re- I’m sorry. Did I wake you up?”

             She ignored the question. “What happened? Did you have a nightmare?”

             He didn’t respond right away. “…Yeah,” he said finally, touching his shoulder again. “Nothing I’m not used to. Don’t worry about it.”

             “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked, recalling that talking about nightmares was supposed to help.

             “No. Not really.” Shiro looked away for a moment, and then back at her. “I… can we just talk? About anything? Besides my dream, I mean. It… I think that might help.”

             “All right.” Allura settled back down on her sleeping bag on her side, facing Shiro. After a moment, he followed suit. They were closer together than she remembered them being when they’d gone to sleep earlier. “What do you want to talk about?” she asked.

             “I don’t know.” He still sounded restless. “Anything. You decide.”

             “Okay, I will.” Allura was quiet for a moment. “Have I told you about the time Coran and my father got into trouble for adopting a cat in college?”

             “No, I don’t think so.” Shiro sounded like he was smiling now.

             So Allura told him the story. He spoke up from time to time, making comments or giving reactions, but for the most part he seemed content to just listen. She kept her voice low, half hoping to lull him back to sleep. Shiro’s responses grew quieter and quieter the longer she spoke, as if he was drifting off. When Allura finished her story, he didn’t say anything.

             “Are you still awake?” she whispered.

             “I guess,” was the mumbled reply.

             Allura smiled. She could just barely make out his form in the darkness; he was half on his side, his left arm out a little bit with his palm facing up. On an impulse, she reached out and laced her fingers through his. “I’m right here,” she told him quietly.

             His fingers curled and he gently squeezed her hand. “Thank you,” he breathed.

 

             She woke up again a few hours later, a little before dawn. The apartment wasn’t light enough to see clearly. But it hadn’t been the light that had woken her up, no. And it hadn’t been a sound this time, either. It had been the feeling of air stirring in front of her face. She opened her eyes and froze.

             Her fingers were still intertwined with Shiro’s, and sometime during the night, she had pulled her hand close to herself. And Shiro had done the same thing. Their faces were so close together their foreheads were almost touching. Shiro was still asleep, his expression peaceful.

             She stayed like that, unsure what to do, for a few minutes. Then she closed her eyes and kept them like that until she eventually drifted off to sleep again.

 

             When she woke for the third time in the morning, Shiro was gone. She blinked and sat up, but before she could say anything, she heard Shiro ask from outside the blanket fort, “You awake?”

             She crawled to the entrance and poked her head out just as Shiro stepped around the side of it. “I just woke up a few minutes ago,” he told her. He wasn’t wearing his prosthetic yet. “It’s about nine in the morning.”

             “All right,” Allura said, sighing. “I can make eggs if you want breakfast.”

             “Any way I can help?” he asked.

             “Just get out a pan. They’re to the right of the stove.”

             “Okay.” Shiro disappeared into the kitchen, but Allura stayed in the main room for a moment. She looked down at her hand and flexed her fingers, wondering whether she and Shiro had still been holding hands when he woke up. She briefly considered asking him, and immediately thought better of it. Instead, she trotted into the kitchen after Shiro.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may have taken some liberties in the number of climbs a newbie can do. I only did three the first time I went climbing, and I could barely pick anything up for the rest of the day and the next day, too, because my arms were SO SORE. Interestingly, watching people climb also seems to make you notice their butts more. Or maybe that’s just me.
> 
> Thanks to NerdyOatmeal for beta, and also helping me word a couple of things!
> 
> Find me on tumblr [here!](http://severalsmallhedgehogs.tumblr.com/)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which the broganes are clueless.

          As Shiro returned to his apartment with the blankets and sleeping bags, he had the distinct feeling that something important had happened last night. The problem was, he couldn’t quite recall what that something had been. He couldn’t remember saying anything particularly important before they went to bed. And he vaguely recalled having a nightmare, waking up, and listening to Allura tell him a story until he fell asleep again. He really wished he could remember what the story had been about, because he’d liked it a lot. Or maybe he’d just liked listening to Allura tell it.

          He went about his morning in a sort of haze, feeling as if he hadn’t quite woken up all the way. Around noon he was sitting on the couch, watching the TV without actually watching the show on the screen, when he became aware of the fact that someone was knocking on the door. He recalled hearing it but wasn’t sure how long it had been going on.

          When he opened the door, he found Keith standing there, scowling. “Keith,” he said. “Hi.”

          “I’ve been standing out here for ten minutes,” Keith grumped. “What were you doing?” Then he paused and looked into the hallway behind Shiro. “Allura’s not here, is she?”

          “No,” Shiro replied, stepping aside to let his brother into the apartment. “Sorry I didn’t let you in earlier. I was distracted- I didn’t hear you knocking.”

          Keith just huffed and headed into the living room. Shiro followed him and asked, “Any particular reason you’re here?”

          Keith stopped. For a moment he didn't move. Then, at length, he turned around and crossed his arms, keeping his eyes down. “Yeah. Can I, uh… ask you something?”

          “If this is about the birds and the bees, that’s kind of Dad’s job,” Shiro told him.

          Keith’s ears turned red. “It’s not that,” he said.

          “What, then?” Shiro put his hands on his hips and frowned. “Don’t tell me you’ve started smoking, Keith, because it’s _not_ as cool as you think it looks. It’s expensive, and bad for you, and it smells awful, to boot.”

          Keith shook his head again. His shoulders had crept up a little, something that only happened when he was nervous.

          “What is it?” Shiro asked, starting to get concerned. “Is something wrong? Are you okay?”

          “I think so,” Keith said slowly, rubbing his arm. “I… I think something’s wrong with me. I think I’m sick, or something.”

          Shiro frowned. He stepped over to a chair and sat down, indicating for Keith to do the same. “How do you mean?”

          “I've…” Keith sat across from him and frowned. “I’ve noticed that sometimes my face will start to feel really hot for no reason? And my heart rate kicks up. And… my stomach will get kind of weird.” He put a hand to his midsection, looking uneasy.

          “Does it feel weird now?” Shiro asked.

          Keith shook his head. “It only happens when I’m hanging out with Pidge and her friends from school. It’s been going on for a month now and it’s starting to freak me out.” Keith rubbed his arm again. “I didn’t want to talk to dad about it. I don’t know why. So… I figured I’d come talk to you.”

          Shiro remained silent for a moment as an idea started to form in his head. Face getting hot, funny feeling in the stomach, increased heart rate… that didn’t sound like an illness. “You said you get like this around Pidge?”

          There was a pause, and then Keith shook his head. “No, I’ve hung out with her a few times when it’s just us, and I’m fine. It only happens when her friends are there.”

          “…Hunk, or Lance?”

          Keith frowned again. It was his thinking frown now, though, not his irritated frown or his scared frown. Finally he said, “Lance.”

          Shiro nodded slowly. He hadn’t really seen this coming. But then, he hadn’t spent a whole lot of time with Keith in the past few months, and he hadn’t seen Keith and Lance interact since that day Pidge showed up to his apartment to study. “Do you hang out with Lance a lot?” he inquired.

          “Well… more often, lately.” Keith rubbed his arm. “Last weekend, we got McDonalds and went to see some dumb horror movie. Every single jumpscare got Lance.” Keith smiled almost imperceptibly, and went on. “He kept grabbing my arm. I don’t know why he’d want to go to a horror movie if he got scared at everything. He’s kind of an idiot sometimes.”

           Shiro sat back, feeling gears grind together in his head as his brain processed this new information. “Well, Keith, I’m not really sure how to tell you this...”

           “What?” His brother’s eyes widened, and Shiro had to smother a laugh. He covered his mouth with one hand, trying to hide the grin, but gave up after a second and put his hand on his knee. _How to word this?_ He wondered, shaking his head.

           He took a deep breath. “Well, to _me,_ it sounds like you’ve got a crush on Lance.”

           They were both silent for what felt like a long time. Keith stared at Shiro. Shiro watched his little brother, waiting for a reaction.

           “What?” Keith asked at last. “A crush?” He repeated the word as if he’d never heard it before in his life.

           “Yeah.” Shiro nodded. “A crush. It kind of sounds as if you like him.”

           There was another long silence. Keith blinked a couple of times. “No,” he said at last. “No, I… I don’t have a…” He trailed off and blinked again. “Oh. Oh, shit.”

           Shiro, seeing that Keith understood, nodded again. “Yeah. Also- I’ve got to ask- when you went to see this movie, was anyone else with you?”

           “No,” Keith said slowly. “Why do you ask?”

           Shiro gave him a significant look that it took Keith a moment to understand.

           Keith shook his head. “It wasn’t a date,” he insisted.

           “Are you sure?” Shiro raised his eyebrows.

           His brother didn’t reply. He was frowning at the carpet. After a minute, he spoke again. “I- I don’t know. I mean, I like hanging out with him, even if he does say some dumb stuff sometimes. And… and…” Keith put his head in his hands and growled. “This is _so stupid!_ I can’t have a crush on Lance! He’s an idiot! He- he laughs at the dumbest things, and he does this- this really dorky dance when he’s happy! One time he handed me a list of hair care products, without saying a _single_ word, and I don’t even know where he _got_ it, and I didn’t know what to do with it so I just stuck it in my pocket!”

            Shiro was yet again trying really hard not to laugh. “Is... is it still in your pocket?”

            Keith looked at him, and then stuck a hand in his jacket pocket. “Yeah.”

            “Right.” Shiro nodded a few times, trying to think of something to say, but internally he was screaming with laughter. _I really hope I wasn’t this oblivious when I was sixteen,_ he thought to himself.

            And then that thought triggered something. A memory from that morning, when he’d woken up in Allura’s apartment. He remembered thinking to himself, _How have I never noticed this before? Am I really that oblivious?_

            He’d woken up on the floor of Allura’s apartment sometime in the early morning, before dawn. He’d been able to vaguely remember waking up after his nightmare, and he figured he’d never been as happy to see anyone as he had been when he saw her right then. He’d figured that she looked like an angel because, in a way, she was a godsend right then.

            And then there he was, waking up with their faces so close he could’ve kissed her. Or her knuckles. Or the back of her hand. He was so tempted to kiss her hand. It was what he could reach. It was something. But if he’d done that, she would’ve woken up, and he would’ve had to make explanations that he hadn’t quite made to himself yet.

            So, instead, he remained where he was, motionless, studying her face. She was beautiful, he saw. He’d never really realized that before. Sure, he’d noticed she was pretty plenty of times, when she smiled or laughed, or when she was talking about something she loved. When she’d fallen on the mat at the climbing wall and grinned up at him.

            But only then, when he was half asleep in a blanket fort in the early morning, did Shiro first realize exactly how beautiful she was.

            “…Shiro?” Keith frowned and leaned forward. “Are you listening?”

            “Uh. Yeah,” Shiro said, blinking quickly and trying to clear his head of Allura, without much success. He had other things to worry about right now. He could think about her later. “Sorry, I drifted off for a second. Could you repeat, please?”

             Keith eyed him suspiciously. “I said, what do you think I should do?”

             “Oh.” Shiro sat back. How was he supposed to give his little brother advice when he had no idea what to do in the first place? He gave it his best shot. “Well, I guess you have two choices here.”

             “Which are?”

             “You tell him, or you don’t.”

             Keith scowled. “You’re not helping, Shiro.”

             He shrugged. “Hey, I’m not exactly great at dating. Also, I’ve never had a crush on a guy, so I actually have no experience whatsoever in your situation. You’re going to just have to work it out on your own.” He gave a half smile. “And you’re a smart kid. I’m sure you’ll figure out what to do.”

             Keith glared at him for a moment. Then he got to his feet and muttered, “Why are adults always so useless?”

             “Because kids ask us questions and assume that we’ll always have the answers when we really don’t.” Shiro sat back in his chair. “So we just kind of wing it and hope you guys don’t notice.”

             Keith looked back at him, and then sighed. “I have some other stuff to do,” he said. “See you later.”

             “Good luck,” Shiro told him. “Close the door on your way out, would you?”

             He waited in his chair until he heard the door click shut. Then he covered his face with his hands and growled in frustration. Then he let his hands drop and put his head back to stare at the ceiling for a while. Naturally, Allura’s face immediately came to mind. Specifically, he thought of her with her eyes closed and her face half buried in her pillow, as it had been when he’d woken up that morning. She’d looked really cute like that.

             Shiro shook his head at himself. Here he was preaching to Keith when he was just as confused about his own feelings.

             A noise at the windowsill drew his attention. He looked up and found Skye standing outside. He saw her meow, and then she pressed her side against the glass.

             Smiling, Shiro got to his feet and opened the window. “Hey, girl,” he said. Skye leaped down onto the floor and rubbed against his leg. Then she meowed again. Shiro crouched down to pick her up. “You’re really skinny,” he noted. “How long have you been on your own?”

             Predictably, Skye didn’t respond. Shiro sighed, set her back on the windowsill, and scratched between her ears. “I don’t suppose you know what I should do,” he said.

             Skye just tilted her head and started to purr.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is mostly talking.
> 
> I figured Keith wouldn’t use skincare products even if Lance did give him a list, so my idea is that Lance went out of his way to find hair stuff, asking siblings and people who work at Lush, and found some products that people recommended. Because Keith may not do a lot for his skin, but we all know he’ll defend that mullet with his life.
> 
> Thanks to [AnxietyAndRamen](https://anxietyandramen.tumblr.com/) for beta!
> 
> Find me on tumblr [here!](http://severalsmallhedgehogs.tumblr.com/)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyy what's up yall I was half asleep when I finished this but here it is! Finally!

          Allura wasn’t sure why, but Shiro seemed a little different after that night in the blanket fort. Or maybe it was just her own wishful thinking. Either way, she felt like he was looking at her differently than he used to. Something about the tilt of his head, maybe, or the way he smiled when he spoke to her. It was difficult to see, but she was pretty sure it was there.

         They went back to the gym a few times in the next couple of weeks. Shiro seemed to have been expecting he’d have to show Allura how to use some of the machines, but she figured them out on her own. And Allura practically felt like she puffed up with pride when he said, “I hadn’t really noticed before, but you’re got some muscle already, don’t you?”

          Instead, Allura smirked and crossed her arms. “I’ll bet I could pick you up fairly easily.”

          Shiro laughed. “Not in the middle of the gym, please,” he said. “I have an image to uphold.”

          “Oh, and what would happen to your image if I can bench more than you?”

          “First.” Shiro held up one finger. “I would not take any bets on that, and besides, we’ll never know since I don’t work out with my prosthetic. Too much stress on it.”

          Allura rolled her eyes. “That’s a cop-out and you know it.”

          Shiro grinned. “Hey, that was only the first thing. Second, I’m pretty sure that most of the guys in here would be either green with envy, or shoving me out of the way to try and get a date with you. I’m already getting mean looks.”

          She smacked his shoulder. “Very funny.”

          “I’m serious!” He laughed. “A pretty girl who can probably throw you across a room? What’s there not to love?”

          Allura felt heat rise to her face and thought to be glad she didn’t show a blush easily. Somehow she managed to finish the conversation after that, and they got through the rest of the day without her embarrassing herself. They said goodbye at the elevator and went their separate ways home.

          As soon as she got into her apartment, Allura curled up on her bed and buried her face in her pillow. She didn’t want to be so excited about what Shiro had said, but describing her as “a pretty girl who can throw you across the room” was pretty high praise. The second part- _“What’s there not to love?”_ was just getting her hopes up. She just wished he’d meant it the way she wanted him to.

 

          When Shiro got home, he went straight to the couch and flopped down at his back. He stared at the ceiling for a moment. Then he covered his face with his hands to muffle a groan of frustration. _“A pretty girl you can throw you across a room?” Wow, real romantic._ _I’m sure that’s exactly what she wanted to hear. Smooth, Shiro._

          Something landed on his stomach. He let his hands drop and looked down to find Skye standing on top of him. She shifted to lie down, and then started kneading his stomach and purring. He laughed and lifted one hand to scratch between her ears. He’ finally gotten Skye to the vet a few days ago, and the vet had declared that she was most likely a stray, or abandoned. Now she was all cleaned up and very, very happy to have a home.

           She hopped down and made the noise that was apparently her demand for food, so Shiro sighed and got up to get her lunch. Then he made his own food, ate, and spent the rest of the day on the couch. Around ten, he went to bed. Skye preferred to sleep in a corner in the living room, for some reason. Shiro wondered if it was because he snored. He really hoped not. Allura had never said he’d snored…

           Finally he pushed the thought aside and went to sleep.

 

          A while later, Shiro opened his eyes and sat up in bed. He was shaking, but not as badly as he normally was when he woke up in the middle of the night.

          He’d had the dream again. The truck, and the jolt, and the pain. But the dream hadn’t ended there. It shifted drastically, and suddenly he was sitting on the couch next to Allura. She was smiling and sitting sideways facing him, one knee up, leaning against the back cushions with her head tilted to the side. They were talking, but he couldn’t remember what they’d been talking about. Just looking at her had made him feel calm, even if it was just a dream. Hearing her voice steadied his heartbeat and put him at ease. He shut his eyes and remembered that for a moment, letting the tranquility of that scene wash over him.

          Once his heartbeat had returned to normal, Shiro sighed, laid back down, and closed his eyes again.

          That turned out to be a mistake.

          He woke up again only an hour later. He sat bolt upright, wheezing, his hand clutched in the sheets. He couldn’t remember why. He’d had a nightmare, he knew, but it hadn’t been the usual one. Instead he was certain, deep in his bones, that it had had something to do with Allura. Something had happened to her, and he’d been unable to help at all. He’d heard her scream but he’d been too far away, or too late, or, or…

          Shiro reached over and grabbed his phone off his bedside table. He went to his contacts and tapped Allura’s name, but he stopped before hitting the call button. The display at the top of the screen showed that it was three-thirty in the morning.     

          Shiro sighed and let his hand drop onto the covers. “She’s’s fine,” he said aloud to himself, staring at her contact picture. He’d taken the photo himself, since she told him she was no good at selfies. She was smiling brightly at the camera, like she was about to laugh. Shiro couldn’t for the life of him remember what he’d said to cause her to smile like that.

          “She’s a grown woman,” he said, still looking at the contact picture. “She can take care of herself. Plus, it’s the middle of the night. She’s got to be asleep.”

          Allura’s picture smiled up at him from the phone. He sighed and admitted to himself the real reason he wanted to call her. Not to check up on her, not really, but just to hear her talk.

          He shut his eyes, hit ‘talk,’ and raised the phone to his ear. The phone started to ring, and Shiro started to reconsider. I should just hang up, he thought. She’s asleep. I shouldn’t wake her up. She’s probably not going to be happy that I woke her up…

          There was a click. “Uh… Hello?”

          Allura sounded like she was barely awake. Shiro took a deep breath. “Allura,” he said, wincing. “Hi. Sorry to… uh, sorry to wake you up.”

          She yawned. “Is something wrong?” He heard a rustling and figured she was sitting up.

          “I, uh…” Shiro sat back against the wall and looked up at the ceiling. “No… no, I guess not. I’m fine. Um… How’re you?” He winced again. Idiot.

          There was a pause. “I’m all right,” Allura said at last. Neither of them spoke for a moment. Then Allura said, “You had another nightmare.” It wasn’t a question.

          Shiro sighed. “Yeah… I’m really sorry to wake you up. I… I just… needed to hear your voice.” Oops. That had slipped out.  He hadn’t meant to say that. Damn it. He remained silent, waiting for Allura’s reaction.

          “I see,” was all she said. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking; her tone had sounded pretty ambiguous. Great. “Well… do you just want to talk, then?”

          “Yeah. If that’s all right.”

          “Or…” Allura hesitated. “Do you want me to come over?”

          Shiro gave a quiet laugh. “That sounds great, but I don’t think I can do another night sleeping on the floor. It’s probably not good for our backs, anyway.”

          “Well, I wasn’t going to suggest sleeping on the floor,” Allura said. “I was just… thinking I could sit with you for a while, maybe.”

          There was a long silence while Shiro wrestled with his guilt for waking her up in the middle of the night. “I don’t want to keep you from getting enough sleep.”

          “I’m more worried about making sure you’re all right,” she replied quietly.

          Shiro closed his eyes and exhaled. “All right,” he said. “I mean… yeah. I’d like that. I’ll… let you in when you get here.”

          “Okay. I’m going to hang up now. See you in a few minutes.”

          “See you in a few minutes,” Shiro replied.

          Then the call ended. He let his hand drop and stared at the screen until it went dark on its own. After a minute he sighed and got out of bed, and not thirty second later, he heard a knock from the front room. He went to the door and opened it without checking to see who was outside- he knew the sound of Allura knocking by now. And there she was, wearing pajama pants, a hoodie, and sneakers. She hadn’t taken any time to do her hair, and her curls tumbled loose around her shoulders.

          He stepped aside to let her in. “Thanks,” he said.

          She nodded. “Shall we sit down?”

          They took their seats on the couch. Shiro wasn’t sure whether it was intentional, but Allura sat much closer to him than she normally did. She still had one knee up, but she was turned partly to the side and their shoulders were almost touching.

          Neither of them spoke for a moment. Shiro looked at the carpet, and then at her. “Have you got any more stories?” he asked. Those were generally good ways to start conversations.

          Allura was silent for a moment. “Why don’t you tell me one?” she said. “Do you have any stories from when you and Keith were younger?”

          Shiro looked up at the ceiling, thinking. “I dunno,” he said. They were silent for a moment before he said, “I… do have a story about when I took him for a ride on my motorcycle.”

          “You have a motorcycle?” Allura inquired.

          “I had one,” he replied. “Saved up for it and got it when I got my driver’s license. Then I gave it to Keith when I joined the military, since I wouldn’t be able to use it. Of course, he couldn’t actually ride it until this year, but he loves that thing so much. Keeps it in better shape than I ever did.” He frowned. “I wonder if he’d started riding it yet. I think he always takes the bus when he comes over here…”

          “I’ve never ridden on a motorcycle,” Allura told him. “What’s it like?”

          “What’s it like?” Shiro repeated blankly. “Uh… well, it’s sort of difficult to explain.”

          “Do your best, then.”

 

          Listening to Shiro talk about his brother and his bike, Allura couldn’t help but smile. She’d been able to hear the tight emotion in his voice from the first word he’d said after she picked up. He’d sounded tired and scared. He’d relaxed now; talking seemed to have helped him calm down. As the minutes spent talking on the couch turned into hours, she felt her eyelids get heavy, and she had to struggle to stay awake.

          Shiro noticed. “Do you want to stop?” he asked her. “I mean, we’ve been talking for a while and I feel all right now, so you can go home and go to sleep if you want to…”

          “No,” Allura murmured. Then she turned and leaned over to rest her head on his shoulder. “This is fine. Keep talking.”

 

          Shiro hesitated, and then slowly picked back up where he’d left off. After a minute or two he reached over and pulled a blanket off the couch. He moved carefully, trying not to disturb her. After a second Allura shifted so her forehead rested against his neck. He paused to collect himself, and then cautiously pulled the blanket up over Allura, and then, after another hesitation, lifted his arm and rested it on her hip. She sighed and shifted closer to him.

          They remained where they were for a moment. Shiro tilted his head a little, trying to see whether she was asleep, but he couldn’t tell. Finally he murmured, “Are you awake?”

          Allura replied with a quiet hum- not really a yes or a no.

          Shiro just sat there for a moment. Here he was, on the couch with Allura in the small hours of the morning. She’d gotten up in the middle of the night and stayed awake to talk to him. He knew he’d do the same for her in a heartbeat, but… he just wished there was some way he could express how much it meant ot him.

          He sighed and hugged her a little tighter against himself. “I love you,” he said quietly. In hindsight, he wasn’t sure whether he’d meant for her to hear it, or whether it was just something he felt he had to say aloud.

          Allura’s eyelids fluttered. If she hadn’t been awake before, she was now. She didn’t lift her head, didn’t even move a muscle, and Shiro tried not to make it too obvious that he was holding his breath. Had she heard him? He wasn’t sure he had it in him to repeat it right now. What was he going to do if she asked him what he’d said?

           Then Allura sighed again and moved one arm to lace her fingers through his. “I love you, too,” she replied quietly, squeezing his hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the hiatus, there was finals and some other stuff, and I just wasn’t working on this all that much. Fortunately, now I’m out of school for the summer! Unfortunately, my summer job starts up at the beginning of June and goes until August, and I won’t have a lot of time to write, so y’all should probably be ready for another long hiatus. :|
> 
> Thanks to Carly for beta!
> 
> And thanks to all of you who read, and who comment, and who keep checking for new chapters! You guys are the best!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After.

Allura woke up in her bed in the morning, she didn’t move right away. She only thought to herself that she’d had the weirdest dream- she’d gone over to Shiro’s apartment to sit up with him for a while, and Shiro had told her he’d loved her. And she’d told him she loved him back.

She sighed and sat up, reaching over to check her phone. There were no new texts, aside from one she’d missed last night from Coran. Apparently he’d called and she hadn’t picked up, and he’d been worried about her. She went to her call record and looked at the most recent call. But it wasn’t from Coran- it was from Shiro. At three-thirty in the morning.

For a moment, she simply stared at it. Three-thirty. The middle of the night. Shiro had called her in the middle of the night, and she’d answered it. The call was only a few minutes long. That fit with the dream she’d had last night.

Then she had the dawning realization that it hadn’t been a dream, and that the confession had actually happened. She dropped her phone and just stared at it for a moment, at the timestamp that confirmed that it had all been real.

“Oh, my god,” she said aloud.

She didn’t go to get her paper that morning. She didn’t want to see Shiro. She had no idea how to act around him after something like that.

For the rest of the week she avoided Shiro outright. She felt awful, but she couldn’t seem to convince herself to own up to what she’d said. Which was a terrible thing to do to Shiro, saying she returned his feelings and then shutting down on him. She wished she had someone to talk to about this. Not Coran, definitely, and she didn’t have any other friends, not really. She needed to make some more friends.

The stress and guilt felt like a physical pressure on every step she took. Every time she left her apartment, she was half terrified she’d run into Shiro and he’d be upset at her for avoiding him. She knew _she’d_ be upset with _him._

As soon as she had that thought, though, she stopped there in the hallway. Because no, she wouldn’t be upset, would she? She’d be worried. She’d think something had happened. She’d want to know if he was all right. She’d want to help.

She shut her eyes and sighed.

“Allura?”

Then she opened her eyes, and there he was. Dressed up to go to work, in the white dress shirt that seemed a little too small for his shoulders, and the slacks and scuffed black shoes, and the tie that was just a little bit crooked. He had his satchel on one shoulder, an indication that he’d brought work home with him last night. He was blinking, as surprised to see her as she was to see him.

“Shiro,” she said. Then, belatedly, she realized she looked pretty awful. She’d rolled out of bed in her loose t-shirt and plaid pajama pants, stopping just long enough to stuff her hair up into a messy bun to keep it out of the way. She was pretty sure she still had red lines on the side of her face from where it had been pressed into her pillow. It had been a long time since he’d seen her in this condition. The wave of embarrassment was quickly replaced by mild panic. What was she going to say?

Then she realized it was noon. “What are you doing here?” she blurted.

He blinked again. “What?”

Allura’s face heated. “I mean- it’s really late. Don’t you go to work at nine?”

“I have the day off,” he replied without missing a beat. “It’s Sunday. I was just heading into the office building to drop off some paperwork I finished last night.”

“Oh.”

They were both silent for a moment. Allura stared at the floor, aware Shiro was watching her but too nervous to look up and see his expression.

Finally, Shiro spoke. “Are you all right?”

She nodded without looking at him. “I’m fine. Just… haven’t been feeling well.”

“Are you sick?” she could hear the concern in his voice.

            “No,” she replied. _I just feel awful for avoiding you, for making you feel like I don’t like you, for saying something I wasn’t even ready to admit to myself…_

There was a long pause. When Shiro spoke again, his voice was quiet, but closer. She hadn’t noticed him step forward. “Is this because of what happened the other night?”

She swallowed hard but couldn’t bring herself to respond.

Shiro waited, and when she didn’t reply, he told her quietly, “It’s all right if you don’t want anything to change. When I told you, I wasn’t looking for reciprocation. I just… wanted you to know. Although…” he hesitated. “If you didn’t mean what you said, I wish you hadn’t…” he trailed off, seeming to think better of whatever he’d been about to say. “Well. I guess it doesn’t really matter. Never mind.”

Allura looked up in time to see him smile, just a little tightly, and step to the side as if to go around her. He was saying, “I guess I’ll leave you alone now. Call or text if you want to go to hang out, all right? The offer always stands.”

Shiro stepped past her, and Allura’s heart seized. No, she couldn’t let him go off thinking like this… “Wait,” she said. He stopped and looked at her. There was something like tired hope in his eyes. She almost lost her courage, seeing how much this meant to him. But he meant a lot to her, and she needed him to know that.

She opened her mouth, still not sure what she was going to say until she heard it. “I meant what I said.”

He didn’t respond right away. He just blinked slowly. Allura felt something like panic rising in her, panic that he hadn’t heard her? That he didn’t believe her? He had to believe her, this was Shiro. He always took her seriously when she needed him to, and god, did she need him to take her seriously right now.

“I meant it,” she repeated. “When I said I love you. I’m- I’m still trying to decide what that means, and I didn’t know how I could possibly explain that to you, so I was avoiding you, and I’m sorry.”

Shiro blinked again. Then, inexplicably, he laughed. It didn’t seem like he was laughing at her- it was almost like a laugh of disbelief, except that wasn’t quite it, because she could tell he believed her. It seemed more like laughter at irony, although she wasn’t sure what the irony was, and so she didn’t laugh with him. She just waited, trying not to wring her hands, as Shiro looked at her and smiled helplessly.

“I’m sorry, too,” he said, and when Allura started to speak, he held up a hand. “Just- wait a second. Please.” He took a deep breath and told her, “I’m not sorry about what I said, and I never will be, because it’s the truth. I’m sorry for- for…” He paused, and his expression looked as if he was fighting a smile. “For… sort of avoiding you these past few days. I thought I’d been rejected, and I was moping around and just generally being a terrible friend. I’m sorry.”

For a moment they just looked at each other. Then Allura laughed, and then Shiro laughed, and they couldn’t seem to stop. Neither of them was really sure why they were laughing, but it felt like some kind of release. Suddenly, the unease that had been weighing down on them for all those days was just gone. Allura was just happy to be with him again.

When they’d finally recovered and were both capable of speaking again, Shiro cleared his throat and said, “So, if you need time to figure things out-”

“I don’t think I do,” she told him, locking her hands behind her back. “Not anymore.” She smiled up at him.

Shiro paused. After a second he managed to ask, “So… do you think it’s romantically?”

Allura slowly nodded. “Yes, I believe so.”

“All right.” Shiro laughed, a little nervously. “Sorry. I’m just… kind of terrified of messing this up.”

“We both sort of did that already,” Allura pointed out.

Shiro bobbed his head, sort of nodding. There was a pause. His cheeks looked a little pink. “So, uh… can I… kiss you?”

“Yes,” Allura told him. “I think I’d like that.”

It turned out that she really did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this fic aint over yet, anybody who read Lifeline knows Ive got to show these cuties being a couple. 
> 
> No beta today, we write like all my usual beta people are either not responding or listening to TAZ and I wouldn’t interrupt that.
> 
> Thank you so much to everybody who was patient through the hiatus! It was shorter than I was expecting it to be, but I got burned out at work and left a few hours early yesterday, and I needed to de-stress, and what better way to de-stress than writing angst that turns into fluff, am I right??? I’m more than halfway through my summer job, so here’s to survival!


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Emerges from a dumpster with no explanation for the hiatus to throw this last chapter at y’all as you’re just walking by minding your own business

They went on a date after that. It was impromptu, and hardly planned- they both thought of ideas while they finished their separate business; Shiro dropped off his papers, and Allura changed and gathered up her things into her purse. They met in front of their apartment building and took a bus to downtown.

Allura’s ideas involved the movies and the park, and Shiro, not knowing the area very well, agreed to whatever she wanted to do. On the way out of the movie, while looking for someplace to eat, they got sidetracked by a fountain that shot streams of water out of the ground. “There used to be one of these near where me and Keith grew up,” Shiro said, sounding almost wistful.

Allura looked at it and bit her lip. It was too cold to jump in right now… “We should come back once it’s warmer out,” she proposed.

Shiro nodded, and absently smiled.

That date was one of the best dates Allura had ever been on.

 

In all honesty, not much changed. They hung out together as often as possible. They watched movies, and went out to dinner, and walked around the arboretum while Allura pointed out plants she knew. Shiro named planes flying overhead.

“How do you know all of these?” Allura asked after Shiro identified a Boeing 737 that she could barely see in the clouds.

He shrugged. “Shape and engine noise, mostly. I got a degree as an aeronautical engineer in Florida. There was an airport right near the school, so we saw a lot of different planes.”

Allura turned to look at him. “How did you end up with the job you have now?”

Shiro was silent for a moment. “I was a pilot for a while, but… stuff happened.” He indicated his prosthetic arm. “Wasn’t so interested in planes after I got out of the hospital. I just wanted a regular, boring job that didn’t have people’s lives depending on it.”

There was a pause after he went quiet, and it took him a moment to realize Allura was trying to think of something to say. He took her hand and smiled wearily. “Let’s go get something to eat. I’m pretty hungry.”

Moments like that didn’t happen often, but they did happen. Shiro didn’t like to talk about his time in the military. Or, at least, he didn’t like talking about it with her. And Allura didn’t talk about her father at all. Shiro didn’t get a lot from her about her home life. She told him about Coran, of course- and eventually, she told Coran about Shiro. Coran was shocked at first- “Miss Allura, you’ve been dating him _how_ long? Why did you tell me earlier!”- but agreed to settle down if he could meet Shiro.

Which was why they had a dinner together at Allura’s apartment. They all worked on dinner- Coran and Shiro insisted on making dinner, which Allura agreed to with a puzzled smile. Unbeknownst to her, Shiro and Coran had been communicating about the dinner, and at Shiro’s request, Coran had come up with some of Allura’s favorite foods.

“I just want to do something for her,” Shiro said as they moved around the kitchen, pulling ingredients out.

Coran nodded as he sorted through the spice rack. “Yes, I imagine she’d appreciate it. She needs something nice, after everything she’s gone through lately.”

Shiro stopped and turned around. “What do you mean?”

Coran glanced over his shoulder. “Well, between looking for a new job, and…” When Shiro only looked at him in confusion, Coran trailed off and turned away from the counter. “Has she not told you?”

“No,” Shiro said slowly. “Why is she looking for a new job? Did something happen?”

There was a pause before Coran responded. He turned away and shook his head. “Not my place to say, Shiro. Sorry. You’ll have to ask her yourself.”

Shiro frowned and opened his mouth to ask something else, but Coran started clattering around with the pans in a cabinet- more loudly than necessary- and Shiro couldn’t ask anything else.

Dinner would have been a little stilted if Allura hadn’t been so delighted by the food. “I can’t believe you two!” she exclaimed, her eyes lighting up. “How long have you been planning this?”

“Not too long,” Shiro replied, smiling. She didn’t seem upset, he thought. She seemed like she was the same as usual. Throughout the whole meal, he kept thinking back to himself- had she been silent a little more than usual lately? Was her smile not as bright? He hadn’t noticed before, but now that Coran mentioned it, something about her did seem a little strained.

But Coran seemed determined not to talk about it. Allura insisted on doing the dishes and banished them from the kitchen. From the living room, Shiro could hear her singing along with something on her iPod, accompanied by the occasional clunk of dishes. Once they’d settled and Shiro was sure Allura wouldn’t hear them, he started to ask Coran about what he’d said earlier. But Coran interrupted him.

“Allura tells me you used to be with the military,” he said, as if he hadn’t noticed Shiro was about to speak. “How long were you in for?”

Shiro blinked in surprise. “Uh… a little over a year.”

Coran nodded. “I was an engineer,” he said. “For… a long time. Left around the same time my commanding officer did. Stuck with him for years.”

“Really?” Shiro asked. “Wow. He must have been something.”

Coran nodded. “I would have followed Alfor to the ends of the earth.”

“What happened to him?”

There was a pause. Finally, Coran sighed. “He was Allura’s father. Surely she’s told you.”

“Oh.” Shiro went quiet. “She hasn’t… told me much about her dad.”

“She doesn’t like to talk about him,” Coran agreed. “He was a good man. You sort of remind me of him.” Glancing at Shiro and registering his unnerved expression, he clarified, “You have a similar sort of weight about you. Gravity. People follow you fairly easily, right? Alfor was like that. Allura would be like that, too, I think, if she wanted to be. But…” He sighed and folded his arms, leaning back against his chair. “She’s a bit of a loner these days.” He paused for a moment, and then looked at Shiro again. “I’m glad she found you.”

Shiro cast his eyes down. He thought of meeting her in the elevator, he thought of finally having a constant person in his life, and he thought of a whispered confession early in the morning, after she didn’t have to pick up the phone.

It took him a second to think of something to say, and when he did, it carried the weight of the stark truth. “I’m glad she found me, too.”

  
Coran left soon after that, but Shiro stayed a while longer. They watched some TV, cuddling and occasionally leaning over to kiss each other. Finally, during a commercial break, Shiro worked up the nerve to ask. “Why did you tell me you were looking for another job.”

Allura didn’t respond right away. She kept her eyes on the screen for a moment, and then sighed and let her head fall against Shiro’s shoulder. “I didn’t want you to worry,” she murmured. I thought it would be a quick search, and then I’d be working again, but…”

Shiro frowned. “’Working again?’” He repeated. “You lost your job?”

She slowly nodded. “You remember that… that person I told you about, a while ago?”

“Yeah.”

“He…” She leaned against him a little more. “Two weeks ago, he grabbed my wrist as I was passing by the table. I panicked…” She trailed off. “No, I didn’t panic. I was… already having a bad day, and I was frustrated, and that set me off. He wouldn’t let go, so I threw him on the floor. In the middle of a restaurant full of customers. And… I got fired.”

Shiro remained silent, wrestling with his emotions before he dared to speak. “And what happened to him?”

Allura pulled her knees up onto the couch. “He was given a complimentary dessert.”

They were both quiet for a while. Shiro couldn’t think of something to say that didn’t involve cursing, so he didn’t say anything. Allura was the one who broke the silence this time. “I have enough saved up to keep up with rent and bills for a few months,” she said, “but if I haven’t found a job by then…”

“You can live in my apartment if it comes to that,” Shiro said.

Allura looked up at him. “Really?”

He nodded. “I mean, if you’re okay with that. We could work something out. Split the bill for groceries and bills and stuff. I remember some easy ways to save money from when I was back in college. We can deal.”

Allura looked back down for a moment, and finally, she smiled a little. “Yes,” she said, shifting a little closet to him. “We can deal.”

 

Things were better after that, somehow. Allura seemed more relaxed, and Shiro was glad for that. She gave him regular updates on the job search- she’d applied to a few places, she’d gotten an interview, this place seemed promising, and that one, not so much. He walked her home after a particularly stressful interview, and they had fried rice and watched an old cartoon.

And the nightmares still came, but they weren’t as bad, somehow. They weren’t as frequent. And Allura wasn’t in them. Shiro had to wonder if he’d just noticed subconsciously that she was having trouble, and whether that had manifested in the dreams.

Then, a couple of weeks later, he got a call from Allura at work. She didn’t normally call him during work hours, so he grabbed his phone and went to the break room to answer it. “Allura?” he said. “Are you all right!”

“ _I got it!_ ” she shouted into the phone. Shiro yanked the phone away from his ear, and a few people in the break room gave him odd looks. In the time it took him to put the phone back up to his ear, his heart had swelled.

“You got a job?” he asked.

“ _Yes!_ ” she replied. He could hear her grinning, nearly laughing. “I just got a call from that little indie coffee shop downtown! I’ve been there a few times, and I’ve talked to some of the employees and they say it’s a great place to work, and their customers are the _sweetest,_ and oh, my god, Shiro, this is _so great!_ ”

“Yeah!” Shiro was grinning now, too. “This calls for a celebration. Want me to pick something up on the way home? I can bring it over to your place.”

“That sounds great,” Allura replied. “I should let you get back to work- sorry for calling during work hours- I’ve got to call Coran!” She tripped over her words, too excited to pause between sentences.

“All right, yeah. Talk to you later.”

“See you tonight!”

 

Shiro was humming happily the whole rest of the day. He tapped his thumbs against the steering wheel in traffic, and he bobbed his head to the music in the grocery store where he stopped for food. When he passed the floral department, he spotted a bouquet of flowers that were pale purple and blue and white and yellow. He bought it.

When he knocked on the door to Allura’s apartment, it immediately flew open. There she was, still in her nice dress with her earrings still in, grinning ear to ear. Her eyes went from his face, to the food, and finally to the flowers. “Oh!”

“I thought you might like these,” Shiro said, handing her the bouquet.

"They’re beautiful!” She exclaimed. “Oh, these are carnations, I _love_ carnations!” She sniffed one of the white flowers. “Come on in, I’ll put these in some water.”

They ate what Shiro had brought from the store, and they washed the dishes together. Allura changed into more comfortable clothes. Then they sat on the couch, leaning against each other while Shiro read a book and Allura scrolled through her phone in comfortable silence.

It was a while before Allura lowered her phone into her lap and stared at the wall for a few moments. When Shiro noticed, he looked p and frowned. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” Allura replied. “I was just… thinking.” She paused again and took a deep breath. “You told me I could move in if I didn’t find a job. And I’ve been wondering… is there any possibility that I can move in regardless?”

He blinked, not understanding. “What?”

She turned to look up at him. “We could share an apartment,” she said. “Split rent and bills and everything.”

“Oh.” Shiro felt heat rise to his face. “Are- are you okay with that? I mean, I only have the one bed right now…”

“That sounds fine.” She smiled slyly. “We can share that, too, if it’s all right with you.”

“Oh,” Shiro said again. His face immediately went bright red. “I- I mean- if you’re- that’s fine with me, I-” As he continued to stammer out an answer, Allura laughed and leaned over, stretching a little to kiss him on the cheek.

“You’re cute,” she told him.

 

 

EPILOGUE

 

Shiro was awakened by the sound of somebody knocking on the front door. Yawning, he extracted himself from Allura’s arms and managed to sit up, turning to put his feet on the floor. Allura rolled over a little and squinted at her alarm clock on the table next to her. “Oh,” she said, and yawned. “We slept in.”

The knocking came again, and Shiro sighed. “I’ll get it.” He pulled aside a blanket hanging over the bed and got up, heading for the front door. But at the door to the main room, he paused and looked back. Allura was sitting up, her elbows on her knees, rubbing her eyes. The blankets forming a canopy over her head had slipped a little during the night, but he thought they’d done pretty well, considering the “blanket fort over the bed” idea had come to them as they were getting ready to go to sleep the `night before.

Allura noticed him watching her, and she pushed some hair out of her eyes and smiled. “What?”

Shiro grinned. “You’re just really beautiful”

She snorted. “Go answer the door, Shiro.”

He found Skye meowing at the door, and he edged her out of the way and opened the door. Standing outside was Keith.

Shiro blinked, but stepped aside to let him in. “What are you doing here?”

Keith stepped inside and hesitated. “Uh, Pidge hadn’t heard from you in a while, and she got Lance to ask me to…” He trailed off, his eyes landing on something in the room behind Shiro. Shiro turned around. Allura had emerged from the bedroom and was making her way to the kitchen. She spotted Keith, waved, and then kept walking.

When she was gone, Keith looked around the main room, taking in the IKEA chairs, the plants on the windowsill. He looked at Shiro. “Is she _living_ here now?”

“Yes, Keith. We moved in together.”

He made a face. “Gross.”

“Which reminds me, how are things going with Lance?”

Keith flushed, and changed the subject.

After his brother left, Shiro sighed and went to the kitchen, where he found Allura making scrambled eggs. “I guess you’re gonna meet my dad sometime soon,” he told her tiredly. “Even if Keith doesn’t tell him at first, Dad’ll get it out of him eventually.”

She half turned to look at him and shrugged. “I can handle a cranky middle-aged man. I used to deal with them all the time, remember?” She turned back to the stove.

Shiro just watched her for a moment, and then, on an impulse, he went over and wrapped his arms around her waist, hugging her to his chest. “You’re great,” he mumbled, “you know that?”

She turned her head to kiss his temple. “Yes, I do.” Then something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. She gave a startled laugh. “Oh my god!”

“What?” He turned around to look back into the living room. All he saw was the tip of Skye’s tail disappearing past the doorway to the kitchen. Allura turned off the stove and slipped past him, heading for the doorway to the main room. When she reached it, she immediately cracked up. “Shiro!” she said, practically wheezing. “Shiro, you’ve got to see this!” She looked back into the main room and started laughing all over again. “Oh, my god!”

“What? What is it?” Shiro joined her, but Allura was laughing so hard she could only point. The Roomba was moving around the living room, and Sky was sitting on top of it, looking as comfortable as a queen on a palanquin. “Oh-” Shiro started to laugh, too. Skye’s head swiveled around to watch him. She flicked her ears and meowed. The laughter was so welcome, they could scarcely stop. By the time they collected themselves enough to think about breakfast again, the eggs on the stove had gone cold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shitty things happen and the world isn’t fair, but there are ways to deal. And laughter’s a good ending, I think.
> 
> Sorry if the ending was a little abrupt, but this was eating at me and I just had to finish it. Thanks to all of you who never lost hope. I love all of you readers and all of your comments and kudos. It’s great to hear that my writing makes people feel good, because that is why I post this stuff.


End file.
